Community leaders, partners and supporters gathered in late July in Kingsport for a floss-cutting to mark the completion of construction on the Kingsport Dental Clinic of the Appalachian Highlands, a collaborative dental clinic that will be operated by the UT Health Science Center’s College of Dentistry.
The Kingsport clinic is a product of the Healthy Smiles Initiative, a $94 million multiyear effort to improve oral health care throughout Tennessee. The College of Dentistry is expected to receive $53 million of the funding over several years to expand dental class sizes, grow the state’s dental workforce and open clinics, including the one in Kingsport, in areas of need across the state.
With support from the city of Kingsport, East Tennessee State University, Ballad Health, Delta Dental of Tennessee, Eastman and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, the College of Dentistry will place fourth-year dental students on rotation under the supervision of faculty to provide dental services as they gain clinical experience.
Caring for Youth
The Shelby County Relative Caregiver Program in the Center on Developmental Disabilities at UT Health Science Center offers services and support to individuals who are caring for children of relatives. The program aims to maintain stability in the family and keep children under their family’s care when parents are not able to care for them.
In late June, young people in the program donned white gowns and dark suits for the annual Young Men and Women’s Gala featuring music, food, dancing and a tribute to their relatives who are their caregivers. The formal attire was provided by the program from its budget and donations.
The Relative Caregiver Program is the largest and among the oldest programs of its kind in the state. Since it began in 2001, the program has supported more than 9,000 children from 6,500 families, and approximately 95 percent of these children have not entered foster care.
Research Leadership
Jessica Snowden, a nationally recognized pediatric infectious disease specialist and researcher, is the new vice chancellor for research at the UT Health Science Center. Named after an extensive national search, she also serves as a professor in the College of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics.
Formerly the vice dean for research and chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Snowden is known as a dedicated mentor and a leader in integrating clinical, research and academic efforts to advance the understanding of health and disease.
Snowden brings experience and leadership in multisite and multistate interdisciplinary research, including a groundbreaking opioid study, as well as a major long-COVID study of the effects of the virus on children and families, particularly in underserved areas.