WATERTOWN, Massachusetts--Pulpdent Corporation has announced that Kathy Olson, RDH, BA, is the 2009 recipient of the Harold Berk Award.
The award is sponsored by Pulpdent and given each year by Special Care Dentistry and the Academy of Dentistry for Persons with Disabilities. The award is given annually to an individual who has shown outstanding leadership working with persons with disabilities.
Kathy Olson has served patients with special needs for more than 20 years, starting with hospital outreach programs and mobile dental hygiene services for 40 nursing homes in Illinois. In 1999, she piloted a program through a grant from the state of Illinois to provide dental services to individuals with disabilities.
Olson built the clinic from the ground up and has continued to serve as clinic administrator for 10 years. In 2008, the clinic handled more than 6,400 patient visits and employed two full-time dentists and two full-time hygienists.
Olson is also one of the first two dental hygienists to sit in the Illinois State Dental Society House of Delegates where she has full voting privileges. She has served on the Board of the Special Care Dentistry Association since 2005. She is the immediate past president of the Academy of Dentistry for Persons with Disabilities and has served on its board for 12 years.
"Kathy Olson has received numerous honors for her tireless commitment to public health and the welfare of persons with disabilities," said Fred Berk, vice president of Pulpdent and son of founder Harold Berk. "We salute Kathy Olson, and we thank her for her exemplary efforts to improve access for underserved patients."
Pulpdent established the Harold Berk Award in 1994 to recognize the role Dr. Berk played in helping form the Academy of Dentistry for Persons with Disabilities in 1952.
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