Blackburn to Speak at Dental Pipeline Meeting

David Blackburn DMD 06 next week will speak at a national conference promoting community-based dental education. Blackburn, first delegate for BUSDM’s chapter of the American Student Dental Association (ASDA), will discuss his ten-week volunteer experience delivering dental services to the Navajo population at the Fort Defiance Indian Hospital in Arizona.

Blackburn heard Monday that his essay about the experience won him a spot as one of four student speakers at the Fourth Annual Grantee Meeting of Pipeline Profession & Practice: Community-Based Dental Education. The meeting will take place next week in Washington, DC.

Blackburn’s essay “describes a powerful experience and a deep understanding of the relationships between cultural norms and health outcomes," according to the organization’s deputy director.

For his part, Blackburn was deeply affected by his time at Fort Defiance. "Though dental school teaches about health disparities," Blackburn wrote in his essay, "I did not understand what that truly meant until I traveled 2400 miles to live on the Navajo Reservation and witnessed a population struggling with socioeconomic difficulties and employment losses."

Pipeline Profession & Practice, also known as Dental Pipeline, is a five-year program focused on increasing access to dental care for underserved populations. Through support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the California Endowment the program gives dental schools grants to develop community-based dental education programs.