ADHA District VII

Put on your Calendars!

The District VII workshop will be held in Fargo May 5-6, 2012. More details to come...

Message from our District VII Trustee, Suzanne Luken

Greetings Minnesota Members!

I wanted to take a few minutes to introduce myself as the new District VII Trustee. I graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1994. I work in a general practice office as well as a juvenile correctional facility and as the hygienist at the local job corps. I was recently appointed by the SD Board of Dentistry as a CRDTS Examiner. I have been a member of ADHA and SDDHA since graduation. I have served as SDDHA President and was the Legislative Chair for 7 years. I was also the local component president for 2 years. During all of my seven legislative chair years, I diligently worked on access to care issues and finally, last legislative session a bill was passed to allow collaborative practice in SD. South Dakota is now in the rules process of that legislation. I remember watching the progress in Minnesota with the Advanced Dental Therapy bill with great anticipation as it was such positive advancement allowing for a mid-level practitioner to aid in access to care! Way to go Minnesota!

I have also been fortunate enough to attend 8 ADHA Annual Sessions, three of which I served as Delegate and one as Alternate delegate. If you have never attended an ADHA Annual Session, please consider it...you will have an amazing experience! If you have any questions about what goes on at Annual Session, please don't hesitate to contact me, I would love to visit with you about the experience.

I have also been very active with dental outreach projects, volunteer on the SD Ronald McDonald Care Mobile/Dakota Smiles Mobile and have been a member of the SD Oral Health Coalition since its inception. For National Dental Hygiene Month I coordinate what I call the "Sweet Tooth 5k". We not only promote NDHM, but we raise money for the local Cancer Care Institute Breast Cancer Patients. It is nice to keep the money local and partner with the highly recognized Breast Cancer Awareness Month! The Sweet Tooth 5k is always near Halloween and participants wear costumes or breast cancer awareness attire and we have a great time. Many runners/walkers bring their kids, strollers and pets. We even get entire staffs of dental offices to walk together. This year's Sweet Tooth 5k is Sunday October 23rd, if you happen to be in the Black Hills for a beautiful autumn vacation! Check out our Facebook page "Sweet Tooth 5k"!

My husband and I will celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary in September. We have two boys...age 13 and 9 and live near Rapid City, SD. Most of our free time is spent attending the boys' sports/ school events or out enjoying the beautiful Black Hills!

I look forward to meeting you in the coming months as I travel throughout the district!

Suzanne Luken, RDH
district7trustee@gmail.com

A special thanks to Louann Goodnough, who did a fabulous job as District VII's trustee 2010-2011. Thank you Louann!

ADHA Districts Map

Minnesota is part is part of District VII along with North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.