AIDPH Board of Directors
AIDPH is guided by a team of established oral health leaders dedicated to advancing health equity through creative programming, experiential learning, and innovative collaboration. As a 501c3 nonprofit, the board of directors serves as both governance and fiduciary agents for AIDPH.
David Cappelli, Co-Founder & Chair
DMD, MPH, PhD
David P. Cappelli, DMD, MPH, PhD is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, School of Dental Medicine. He received his MPH and DMD from the University of Pittsburgh.
He was awarded a certificate in Dental Public Health from UT Health San Antonio, Department of Community Dentistry and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health. Dr. Cappelli is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health (ABDPH). Dr. Cappelli is a Past-President of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry (AAPHD). He is the author of the textbook, Prevention in Clinical Oral Health Care and was recognized by the University of Texas Regents with the Outstanding Teaching Award. He is the Director on the portion of the HRSA grant, Post-Doctoral Training in Dental Public Health, that supported the initial funding of AIDPH.
Caswell Evans, Secretary
DDS, MPH
Raul Garcia, Treasurer
DMD, MMedSc, FACD
Steve Geiermann
DDS, MPH
Karen West
DMD, MPH
Alan Morgan
MPA
Caswell A. Evans, Jr., D.D.S., M.P.H., is currently the Associate Dean for Prevention and Public Health Sciences at the University of Illinois, Chicago College of Dentistry; he is also a faculty member in the UIC School of Public Health. Previously he served as the Executive Editor and Project Director for Oral Health in America: A Report of the U.S. Surgeon General. For twelve years, Dr. Evans was Director of Public Health Programs and Services, for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. He is a past president of the American Public Health Association, the American Association of Public Health Dentistry, and the American Board of Dental Public Health. Dr. Evans is Chairman of DentaQuest Foundation Board. He also serves on the Chicago Board of Health and the boards of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago and the Children’s Dental Health Project.
Raul I. Garcia, D.M.D., is Professor and Chair, Department of Health Policy and Health Services Research at Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. He is also the Director of the Center for Research to Evaluate and Eliminate Dental Disparities. CREEDD was established at Boston University in 2001 and is supported by the National Institutes of Health. The Center’s aims are to identify the determinants of oral health disparities and to design and implement community-based interventions to eliminate oral health disparities, with a current focus on children and their caregivers. In addition, he is the Director of the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) Dental Longitudinal Study (DLS), a decades-long investigation on aging and oral health. The VA-DLS has also examined the role that oral conditions may play as risk factors for cardiovascular disease and other systemic health outcomes, and how oral conditions may affect health-related quality of life.
At the national level, Dr. Garcia has served as President (1998-1999) of the Hispanic Dental Association, the national organization whose primary mission is to improve the oral health of Latinos in the U.S. He is also a Past-President (2017-2018) of the American Association for Dental Research. In 2019, he became the first dentist appointed to the Advisory Committee on Minority Health of the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services (DHHS). The Committee advises DHHS on policies and programs for improving the health of racial and ethnic minority populations in the U.S. At the local level, he has served as Chair, and current member, of the Massachusetts Oral Health Advocacy Task Force, and as President (2010-2011) of Health Care for All, Inc., the major consumer-based health advocacy organization in Massachusetts.
Dr. Garcia is a 1981 graduate of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, where he received the D.M.D. degree summa cum laude. He completed his specialty training in Periodontology in 1984, and went on to receive a Master of Medical Sciences degree from Harvard in 1985. He is a Fellow of the American College of Dentists.
Dr. Steve Geiermann, a retired Captain in the U.S. Public Health Service, serves as the Senior Manager addressing access, community oral health infrastructure and capacity within the American Dental Association.He has worked as a dental director in the Indian Health Service and Federally Qualified Health Centers as well as being a HRSA regional dental consultant providing technical assistance and guidance to health centers in the Upper Midwest. He served on the Board of Directors of the National Network for Oral Health Access (NNOHA) and was an expert advisor for Safety Net Solutions seeking to improve the financial stability and productivity of health centers.
Dr. Geiermann is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. He is a Senior Fellow of the Center for Excellence in Government, the American College of Dentists and the International College of Dentists. He is chair of the Best Practices Committee for the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors and serves on the American Association of Public Health Dentistry’s Council on Practice. He is a member of the National Oral Health Coordinating Team for the Oral Health Progress and Equity Network. Addressing the oral health of underserved populations is his passion.
Karen P. West, D.M.D., M.P.H., Professor and Dean of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, School of Dental Medicine (UNLV SDM), has been selected as the next President and CEO of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA). Her appointment will take effect on July 1, 2019. A longtime advocate for women’s health and diversity and inclusion in dental education, Dr. West began her career as a project director in the Augusta Dental Project/Children and Youth Dental Clinic in 1984. Her positions on dental faculty and in administration span 30 years, and she has held the deanship at UNLV SDM for the past 12 years. Dr. West manages a $35 million budget and oversees approximately 400 faculty and staff and 350 students. “Dr. West has experienced every stage of a profession in dental education—from practitioner, to community project manager, to three decades in academia and administration,” says R. Lamont MacNeil, D.D.S., M.Dent.Sc., Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine and Chair of the ADEA Board of Directors. “She not only brings the experience to manage this complex organization, she is also committed to ADEA’s success as a trusted and valued volunteer leader in the Association.” Dr. West earned her D.M.D. from the University of Louisville School of Dentistry and her M.P.H. in Health Administration from the University of South Carolina School of Public Health. She was recruited as a clinical team leader at the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry (UKCD) in 1990. Within the UK system she held a number of administrative positions, including Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs (1998-2002), Acting Dean for Admissions and Student Services (2002-2003), and Interim Division Chief of Public Service Dentistry (2005). She served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at UKCD from 2002 to 2007, gaining academic tenure as an Associate Professor at that time. She continued to expand her administrative and leadership scope in 2007 when she was appointed as Dean of UNLV SDM. Dr. West’s significant experience extends beyond the dental school environment, having served in many important roles nationally and internationally. She served on the Commission on Dental Accreditation from 2013 to 2016 and was Chair of that important accreditation body in 2016. She has also participated in several international accreditation activities, which provide her, and now ADEA, valuable insights as dental education becomes increasingly global. Dr. West was also elected as President of the Society for Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine in 2004 after completing the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Fellowship in 1999. During her career, she has been involved in research projects in the general area of women’s health as well as the key issue of equity for women in dental education. Dr. West has published widely on this and other topics and is considered a leader in the field of women’s issues in dentistry.
Recognized as among the top 100 most influential people in healthcare by Modern Healthcare Magazine, Alan Morgan serves as Chief Executive Officer for the National Rural Health Association. He has more than 30 years experience in health policy at the state and federal level and is one of the nation’s leading experts on rural health policy.
Mr. Morgan served as a contributing author for the publication, “Policy & Politics in Nursing and Health Care,” and for the publication, “Rural Populations and Health.” In addition, his health policy articles have been published in: The American Journal of Clinical Medicine, The Journal of Rural Health, The Journal of Cardiovascular Management, The Journal of Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology, Cardiac Electrophysiology Review, and in Laboratory Medicine.
Mr. Morgan served as staff for former US Congressman Dick Nichols and former Kansas Governor Mike Hayden. Additionally, his past experience includes tenures as a health care lobbyist for the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, the Heart Rhythm Society, and for VHA Inc.
He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from University of Kansas, and a master's degree in public administration from George Mason University.
Joshua Houston
MTS, JD
Jeffrey Chaffin
DDS, MPH, MBA, MHA
Andrea Hight
MS
Darien Weatherspoon
DDS, MPH
Candice Chen
MD, MPH
Joshua Houston is an attorney and registered lobbyist with 15 years of experience in legislative and regulatory affairs. He currently serves as General Counsel and Director of Government Affairs for Texas Impact/Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy.His activities include academic and legal research, legislative strategy, direct lobbying, media relations, and grassroots strategy.
Mr. Houston’s legislative practice covers a wide range of issues including electric and water utilities; consumer finance; healthcare; public education; immigration; criminal justice; and child welfare. His legal concentrations include First Amendment, civil rights, administrative, nonprofit, election, and campaign finance law. He is also a frequent guest lecturer in undergraduate and graduate classrooms, policy forums, and other educational settings.
Before coming to Texas Impact in 2010, Josh spent the 81st Legislative Session as a Law Clerk in the Texas House of Representatives, and as a legislative consultant during the 79th Legislative Session. During law school, he interned at the Travis County District Attorney’s Office in the 147th District Court, was on the Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial team, and worked as a student attorney in UT Law's Legislative Lawyering and Actual Innocence Clinics.
Mr. Houston earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence in May of 2010 from the University of Texas School of Law. In 2007, he received a Master of Theological Studies from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He completed his undergraduate work in 2004 at Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Arts in History with a minor in Philosophy.
A fourth-generation Texas born and raised in Dallas, Mr. Houston enjoys outdoor activities on the beaches, rivers, and hill country of Texas. He is an active member of his church, and serves on the Board of the American Institute of Dental Public Health.
Dr. Chaffin is the Vice-President and Dental Director for Delta Dental of Iowa. He manages scientific and clinical aspects of oral health policy for Delta Dental of Iowa commercial and Government programs. He is currently one of the Associate Section Editors of the US Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health 2020. This will be a sentinel report documenting the importance of oral health for all US residents.
Prior to his current position, Dr. Chaffin served as the State Dental Officer in the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The Wisconsin Oral Health Program focused on promoting and improving oral health for all residents. He completed a 21-year Army career with his last assignment serving as the Dental Chief for the TRICARE Management Activity. In that role he was responsible for oral health policy for the Department of Defense and managing three large multi-billion dollar military dental insurance programs with world-wide coverage. He served as the Consultant for Dentistry to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs an as the Consultant to the Army Surgeon General for Dental Public Health.
He is a graduate from the University of Tampa in 1988, and received a DDS from the University of Nebraska in 1992, a MPH from the University of Michigan in 2000, a MBA from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2006, and a MHA from Baylor University in 2006. He completed a one-year Advanced Education in General Dentistry Residency at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1993.
Dr. Chaffin is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health. He is a Past President of the American Board of Dental Public Health and the American Association of Public Health Dentistry. He currently serves on the board of the Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation and the American Institute of Dental Public Health.
After graduating from dental school in Australia where she grew up, Andrea Hight practiced dentistry for the Tasmanian Health Department before marrying an American on a trip to the US. At that point she had to switch countries.She received her dental degree from Baltimore College of Dental Surgery Dental School, University of Maryland in 2000. After a one-year General Practice Residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, she received her Masters in Public Health (2002) and Doctorate in Public Health in Epidemiology (2007) from the Harvard School of Public Health (now Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) and completed a dental public health residency at Harvard School of Dental Medicine in 2007. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health.
Dr. Weatherspoon is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry (UMSOD). After receiving his DDS, he completed an Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency and received his MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan. He then completed a residency program in Dental Public Health at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), and is a current Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health. Prior to joining the faculty at UMSOD, he was previously a Program Official at NIDCR where he oversaw a diverse portfolio of research grants as the Program Director of the Oral Health Disparities and Inequities Research Program. He was previously an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry in the Division of Prevention and Public Health Sciences, where he helped to administer the College's extramural service-learning program and taught dental public health course-content.
Dr. Weatherspoon's educational areas of interest include: dental public health, health equity, epidemiology, prevention, health promotion, social determinants of health, and interprofessional education and practice.
He is interested in research that aims to eliminate oral health disparities and inequities, improve access to care, and improve the oral health of older adults.
Dr. Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, focused on health workforce, primary care, and health professions and graduate medical education research and policy. She has both national and global expertise. Her research includes examination of the role of medical schools in addressing high priority workforce needs in primary care, underserved communities, and diversity; the role of graduate medical education in the cost practice patterns of physicians; and the status and challenges faced by medical schools in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Prior to rejoining the George Washington University, Dr. Chen was the Director of the Division of Medicine and Dentistry in the Bureau of Health Workforce at the Health Resources and Services Administration, where she led programs to enhance training in primary care, oral health, and geriatrics, including graduate medical education programs in children’s hospitals and Teaching Health Centers. The Division's programs focused on addressing health workforce needs, particularly in rural and underserved communities.
Dr. Chen is also a board certified pediatrician. She received her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine and her Masters of Public Health from the George Washington University with a concentration in Community Oriented Primary Care.