AIDPH Staff | The American Institute of Dental Public Health

Meet the Team

AIDPH is supported by two staff members and several contract support to be flexible to the programming needs of our community and funders.

Annaliese Cothron, MS

Co-Founder & Executive Director

Annaliese Cothron is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the American Institute of Dental Public Health (AIDPH).

She received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from Mississippi State University, specializing in Experimental Psychology with a theme in Applied Statistics. She recently received certification in nonprofit management and fundraising from Our Lady of the Lake University and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Health Sciences (DHSc) from A.T. Still University.

After moving to San Antonio, she worked at UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry for eight years as the Evaluation Coordinator for two school-based sealant programs, teaching as a core instructor in the Dental Public Residency Program and serving as Executive Director of the Texas Repository of Oral Health Data for Evaluation and Outcomes (ROHDEO). In her present position at AIDPH, Annaliese manages the programming , fund development, and overall organizational strategy of AIDPH.

Ms. Cothron is an active member and leader within several national professional organizations, including the Dental Informatics Section of the American Dental Education Association and the American Public Health Association. She serves as a board member for several organizations including the Consortium for Oral Health Research and Informatics (COHRI), Texas Impact, and the Texas Oral Health Coalition. Annaliese is a ROCHT Lead for the Oral Health Progress and Equity Network where she also facilitates the LGBTQIA+ workgroup. Prior to joining UT Health San Antonio, she was one of the initial members of the Mississippi Tobacco Data Workgroup in the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University, focusing on health policy initiatives, tobacco susceptibility and cessation research, and administration of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey for the state of Mississippi.

Caitie Skaggs, MSW

Operations Coordinator

Caitie is the Operations Coordinator for AIDPH and the Principal and Founder of Very Good Assistance.

A Letter from the Director

Dental public health is a dynamic specialty. As a national nonprofit organization, AIDPH aims to be responsive and adaptive to the evergrowing, everchanging needs of the oral health community.

The mission of AIDPH is to foster professional excellence and advance innovation in the practice and education of dental public health. We pursue this mission through our core values of equity, collaboration, exploration, and connection. Our ultimate goal is to strengthen the dental public health community as we work together serving the most vulnerable.

AIDPH was founded in 2015 through a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) with an intention to fill existing gaps in the national network of dental public health professionals. The programming we have developed provides a framework for advanced dental education students, dental professionals, nonprofit leaders, academicians, advocates, and dental residents to learn about barriers to oral health care by increasing cultural sensitivity and understanding the needs of underrepresented groups.

Our annual colloquium is designed to provide focused information and discussion related to an emerging topic in dental public health science and practice. These colloquia allow for a free exchange of ideas and discussion about key dental public health topics that engage learners and experts in a comfortable educational environment.

AIDPH provides additional experiences that can enhance learning opportunities for advanced education students and public health practitioners. Anecdotal Evidence, the AIDPH podcast series, connects public health leaders to promulgate real-time strategies in moving the needle toward creating shared value in the science and education of dental public health. The AIDPH DPH Interview series highlights stories from dental public health experts about their career paths and strategies for success in the dental public health workforce. Using the DPH-VRC, scholars can access over 2,0000 curated references on critical dental public health topics.

The overarching objective of experiences provided by AIDPH is to promote dental public health knowledge, skills, and values with the goal of educating a future oral health workforce. AIDPH experiences highlight the roles that dental public health scholars and practitioners can undertake to obtain optimal oral health care for communities.

Sincerely,
Annaliese Cothron, MS
Executive Director, American Institute of Dental Public Health