Beshear, former state dental director and UK faculty member in Madisonville named first Kentucky Oral Health Champions

The Kentucky Oral Health Coalition recently named former Gov. Steve Beshear, former state dental director Dr. Jim Cecil and Dr. Laura Hancock Jones of the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry the first three Kentucky Oral Health Champions.

Beshear took several steps as governor to improve Kentucky’s oral health. Cecil was a leader in creating and reactivating the oral health coalition. Jones works at UK dental clinic in Madisonville, is a member of the coalition received the award at the’s November Kentucky Oral Health
Summit, the first such gathering in nearly four years.

“The growth of the Kentucky Oral Health Coalition
has been tremendous over the last several years, and I am glad to see
that so much is being accomplished through the work of the KOHC,” Jones said in a UK news release. She has also served on the the Foundation for Healthy
Kentucky‘s Community Advisory Council and the American Network of Oral Health
Coalitions.