Anita Duhl Glicken, MSW, to Serve as Executive Director of the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health

The National Interprofessional Initiative (NIIOH), a consortium of funders and health professionals dedicated to improving health through the eradication of dental disease and the integration of oral health into patient-centered primary care, is pleased to announce that Anita Duhl Glicken, MSW, will step into the leadership role as executive director. Glicken will build on the Initiative’s strong role in fostering awareness, strategic dialogue and interprofessional agreement across the health professions to integrate oral health into primary care education and practice. Glicken replaces Marcia Brand, PhD, who will continue to serve as a senior advisor to the DentaQuest Foundation and NIIOH staff. 

“Anita’s passion to engage the primary care professions in the fight for oral health and her skill at facilitating interprofessional agreements are extraordinary,” said Brand. “We are delighted to have her step into this new leadership role.”

Since 2012, Glicken has served as a program consultant to the Initiative. As a founding member of NIIOH, she provided facilitative leadership to the Physician Assistant Oral Health Initiative, launching a collective impact approach that effectively engaged national organizations to spread oral health across interprofessional education and practice.

“Integration of primary care, behavioral health and oral health is a key component of the strategy to improve health for all,” said Mike Monopoli, DMD, MPH, MS, executive director of DentaQuest Foundation. “Anita’s extensive experience as a facilitator and an innovator will be invaluable to keeping the momentum going.”

 “Integrating oral health into primary care improves health and helps eliminate disparities,” said Diane Oakes, MSW, MPH, President & CEO of Arcora Foundation (formerly Washington Dental Service Foundation).  “With Anita’s leadership, NIIOH will continue to be on the forefront of this transformation.”

Currently, Glicken is associate dean and professor emerita at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and brings over 30 years of administrative, research and education experience.  She has dedicated her career to increasing access and quality of health care by creating innovative education and care delivery models grounded in interprofessional collaboration. She has held several national leadership roles, including president/CEO of the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) Health Foundation, where she led efforts to create a comprehensive database on certified physician assistant practice, used to inform national policy and workforce planning. Glicken also served as president of the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) and was project director of an American International Health Alliance (AIHA) contract to build health workforce capacity in South Africa, consulting on similar efforts in Australia and the United Kingdom.

About the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health

Founded in 2009, the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health (NIIOH) is a consortium of funders and health professionals with a shared vision of eradicating dental disease. The mission of the NIIOH engages primary care clinicians to be alert to their patients’ oral health needs, ready and willing to deliver preventive oral health services to patients of all ages and effective partners of dental providers. The Initiative supports national tools and resources for oral health integration including Smiles for Life, A National Oral Health Curriculum (Society of Teachers of Family Medicine; www.smilesforlifeoralhealth.org) and The Oral Health Integration Implementation Guide (Qualis Health; www.safetynetmedicalhome.org/change-concepts/organized-evidence-based-ca...), In addition, the Initiative supports activities of several professional partners including the PA Oral Health Leadership Initiative and OHNEP (Oral Health Nursing Education and Practice). The activities of NIIOH are made possible with funding from DentaQuest Foundation and Arcora Foundation, (formerly Washington Dental Service Foundation).