SIMPKINS - SMITH COMMEMORATIVE
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Agenda
SIMPKINS - SMITH COMMEMORATIVE
LEGISLATIVE & SOCIAL JUSTICE BREAKFAST
Friday, July 17, 2026 | 7:00 AM – 8:30 AM
Hosts
Dr. Wallace Bellamy 102nd President, National Dental Association
Dr. Leslie E. Grant
NDA Legislative Committee Chair
Dr. Greenlea Taylor
Legislative Breakfast Host- Emcee
Welcome & Opening Remarks
Dr. Leslie Grant
NDA Legislative Committee Chair
Invocation
Dr. Edward Chappelle, Jr. 89th President, National Dental Association
Lift Every Voice & Sing
Performed by Mr. Michael G. Hawkins, Flutist
Breakfast is Served & Musical Ensemble
Sponsor Remarks
Noah Lyons
Vice President, Government Affairs, Synchrony
Higher Education Policy Update
Ms. Hilary Malawer, J.D., M.S.
Chief Advocacy Officer
American Dental Education Association
SIMPKINS - SMITH COMMEMORATIVE
LEGISLATIVE & SOCIAL JUSTICE BREAKFAST
Friday, July 17, 2026 | 7:00 AM – 8:30 AM
Legislative & Social Justice Awards
Mr. Gary Flowers
Drum Major for Justice Award
Dr. Jaha Thomas
C.O. Simpkins Social Justice Award
Keynote Address
Mr. Levar Stoney
Former Mayor of Richmond
Coverage to Care: The NDA Vision for Dental Insurance Reform
Dr. Wallace Bellamy
102nd President, National Dental Association
Building Healthier Communities: A
Policy & Advocacy Conversation
Featuring:
Mr. Gary Flowers Political Talk Radio
Mr. Noah Lyons, Vice President of Government Affairs, Synchrony
Mr. Levar Stoney, Former Mayor of Richmond
Ms. Hilary Malawer, J.D., M.S. ADEA
Moderated by:
Dr. Judy Greenlea Taylor
92nd President, National Dental Association
Audience Engagement & Q&A
Closing Remarks & Acknowledgements
Dr. Reginald Salter
Board Chairman, National Dental Association
Biographies
Dr. Jaha Howard Dr. C.O. Simpkins Social Justice Award
Dr. Jaha Howard is a dentist and member of the Georgia State Senate. Senator Howard’s personal mission statement is to “Love God and Love People. For Real.” This guiding principle shapes his priorities and drives him as a small business owner, community servant, and employer. State Senate District 35, which includes parts of Fulton and Cobb counties, is uniquely personal to Jaha — it’s where he grew up, raised his family, and built his dental practice.
Jaha and his family moved to Atlanta in 1990, where educators and peers in Atlanta Public Schools shaped his life and launched him to Howard University, where he earned his B.S. in Chemistry and Doctorate of Dental Surgery with high honors. He later earned his specialty certificate in Pediatric Dentistry and Master’s in Oral Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
He returned to Georgia with the love of his life, Vanessa, and together they have built a family and a life of service in the community that raised him. Today they live in Smyrna with their three children and worship at Renaissance Church of Christ in South Fulton, where Jaha serves as a deacon and young adult teacher.
As a Board Certified Pediatric Dentist and owner of A+ Pediatric Dentistry of Atlanta, Jaha and his exceptional team have spent over 14 years improving the oral health and quality of life of children across the metro Atlanta area.
His practice has served over 10,000 patients from a wide variety of family backgrounds and has created meaningful jobs in the community. Jaha also serves on the Howard University College of Dentistry Board of Visitors, giving back to the institution that launched his career.
Jaha has dedicated himself to public service at every level. He served four years as an elected member of the Cobb County Board of Education — the second largest school district in Georgia — and was later appointed to Cobb’s Transit Advisory Board. In 2024, he was the Democratic Nominee for Cobb’s Commission District 2.
In 2013, he co-founded the Wave of Excellence group to connect families with their neighborhood schools, and in response to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, co-founded Families Against Racism, a nonprofit creating space for families to learn and work against systemic racism. Mostly recently, Dr. Howard is leading efforts and legislation in Georgia to address Voting Rights, ICE detention centers and hyperscale Data Centers. He has been an outspoken in his promotion of fairness in our political systems and protection of freedom in the public square.
Gary L. Flowers Drum Major for Justice Award
Gary Flowers is a native of Richmond, Virginia, and a proud graduate of the Richmond Public Schools (John B. Cary [now Lois Harrison Jones Elementary], Thomas Henderson Middle School, and Thomas Jefferson High School).
After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1985, Brother Flowers has been on the front lines of civil and human rights policy formation for 40 years in the United States and around the world. After training at the law firm of Hill, Tucker & Marsh Law in Richmond, Virginia, and as a CLEO Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC, he has served as:
• Executive Director, Old Dominion Bar Association of Virginia
• Special Assistant to Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder
• Policy Analyst at The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, DC
• Vice President/National Field Director of Reverend Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition
• Fellow, Institute of Politics, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts
• CEO, Black Leadership Forum, Inc. in Washington, DC
• Fellow, Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia
Currently, Brother Flowers hosts The Gary Flowers Show in Washington, DC (www.WOLDCNEWS.com) and is the owner of Walking the Ward with Gary (www.WalkingtheWard. com).
Brother Flowers believes in the words of Mrs. Maggie Walker, “Love your race, and show it by your practice!” And the words of Mr. John Mitchell, Jr., “Just as Black men erected this statue [of Robert E. Lee in 1890], Black men will take it down.”
Most of all, Gary Flowers believes in the words of Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Reverend Jesse Jackson, respectively, of being “unapologetically Black” and “Keeping Hope Alive!
Keynote Speaker Levar M. Stoney 80th Mayor of Richmond Virginia
Levar M. Stoney served as the 80th Mayor of Richmond, Virginia, from 2017 to 2024, becoming the youngest person ever elected to the office.
Raised in Yorktown, Virginia by his father, a custodian, and his grandmother, a retired domestic worker, Stoney grew up on free and reduced-price lunch and was the first in his family to earn a high school diploma. He went on to graduate from James Madison University with a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration and Political Science.
Stoney’s career in public service began with a fellowship in the office of then-Governor Mark Warner. He later served as Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Virginia and as Deputy Campaign Manager for Terry McAuliffe’s successful 2013 campaign for governor. In 2014, he was appointed Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia, becoming the first African American and the youngest person to hold that post. In that role, he led the restoration of civil and voting rights for more than 150,000 returning citizens.
As Mayor, Stoney led a $3 billion municipal enterprise with a workforce of more than 3,500 employees, delivering eight consecutive balanced budgets and securing Richmond’s first-ever AAA bond rating. Under his leadership, the city reduced its poverty rate by a third and mobilized more than $4 billion in public and private investment. That included the Diamond District, the largest economic development project in Richmond’s history, which delivered a new ballpark for the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the city’s AA baseball team.
Stoney made children and families a central priority, increasing local funding for Richmond Public Schools, building three new schools, and launching Virginia’s first Children’s Fund and Positive Youth Development Fund. His administration also invested a record $70 million in affordable housing, established the city’s first Health Equity Trust Fund, expanded fare-free public transit, and raised the minimum wage for city employees to $18 an hour.
Stoney led Richmond through the COVID-19 pandemic and the national reckoning on race in the summer of 2020, guiding the removal of all Confederate monuments in the former capital of the Confederate States. His leadership on the national stage included serving as President of the Democratic Mayors Association and as a member of the Advisory Board of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Stoney lives in the Richmond region with his wife, Brandy, and daughter, Sunday. He currently serves as Senior Managing Director at Applecart, a marketing and communications technology company.
Hostess Dr. Judy Greenlea Taylor
Dr. Judy Greenlea Taylor is a nationally recognized dentist, healthcare executive, public health leader, and health policy expert who has owned and led her private dental practice in Metro Atlanta, Georgia, for more than three decades. Throughout that time, she has dedicated her career to advancing oral health, healthcare quality, population health, and health equity.
Dr. Taylor has served in numerous professional and public health leadership roles and has been actively engaged in community service throughout her distinguished career. Most recently, she served as Dental Director for a leading national managed care organization, where she provided executive leadership in clinical quality, clinical policy, population health, and healthcare innovation across Medicaid, Medicare, and commercial programs. She served as a consultant and advisor to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as a member of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Oral Health Initiative Advisory Committee, and as a contributing author to landmark federal reports issued by the National Institutes of Health and CMS, including Oral Health in America: Advances and Challenges and Recommendations for Improving Oral Health Care Access, Quality, and Outcomes and Advancing Equity in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Her distinguished record of public service includes serving as the 92nd President of the National Dental Association (NDA), where she championed policies and programs to improve health equity, strengthen the oral health workforce, expand access to care, and advance oral health. She continues to serve as a health policy advisor and contributor to the NDA. She also served two gubernatorial appointments to the Georgia State Board of Public Health, including as Board Secretary, and remains historically the Board’s only dentist. Through the Greenlea Care Foundation, she provided more than $500,000 in charitable dental care, scholarships, sponsorships, and oral health resources to underserved communities in Georgia and internationally through mission trips.
A respected speaker, advisor, and independent consultant, she has served as an advisor and guest lecturer for the Academy for Advancing Leadership (AAL) Interprofessional Academic Medical and Dental School Faculty Workshops, as an advisor to the AAL Executive Women in Leadership program, has presented for professional organizations and conferences nationwide, and has been featured in national and regional media.
Her professional and public service contributions have been recognized through numerous national, state, and community honors, including the State of Georgia’s Outstanding Citizen Award and Goodwill Ambassador designation, and proclamations from the State of Georgia, the City of Atlanta, and the City of Union City.
Dr. Taylor earned her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Iowa College of Dentistry and her Master of Public Health degree from the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. She completed a General Practice Residency and Oral Surgery Fellowship at Emory University, has received numerous professional certifications, and is a Fellow of both the American College of Dentists and the International College of Dentists.
DR. LESLIE EDWINA GRANT
NDA Legislative Committee Chair
Dr. Leslie E. Grant is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina. She graduated from high school in Gary, Indiana, and received a Bachelor of Science Degree, Cum Laude from Boston University. Dr. Grant obtained her Master of Speech Pathology and Audiology Degree from the University of Washington in Seattle. She received her Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree in 1986 from the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, completed a General Practice Residency at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson, New Jersey (1987), and provided dental care in her Baltimore City office “Dentally Speaking” for more than twenty years. She is an examiner with the Commission on Dental Competency Assessment (CDCA)/WREB/CITA.
Dr. Grant’s professional dental activities include serving on the Board of Directors of the Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention (OSAP) from 2010-2017, and as President of the National Dental Association in 2006. She served as the NDA’s first female Speaker of the House of Delegates from 1999-2003. Dr. Grant currently serves on the Board of the Dr. Edward B. Shils Entrepreneurial Fund, The Alliance for Oral Health Across Borders Think Tank, and the Maryland Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Advisory Board. In 2015 she was recognized as one of Maryland’s “Top 100 Women” by the Maryland Daily Record, and in 2006 she was named as one of the “One Hundred + Most Influential African Americans” by Ebony Magazine. The American Association of Women Dentists presented the Lucy Hobbs Taylor Award to Dr.
Grant in 2018, and in 2019, she was presented with the Distinguished Public Service Alumni Award by the University of Maryland School of Dentistry.
Dr. Grant is a long-term member of the League of Women Voters, and a Life Member of the National Dental Association, the NAACP, and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. She is a member of the Academy of General Dentistry, the American Association of Women Dentists and the American Dental Association. Dr. Grant is a Fellow in both the American College of Dentists and the International College of Dentists.
Thank You
2025 - 2026 LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE
Dr. Leslie Grant, Chair
Dr. Judy Greenlea Taylor
Barbara Purifoy-Seldon, RDH, MS
Dr. Brian Swann
Dr. John Nelson
Dr. Wallace Bellamy, National President
2026 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Dr. Wallace Bellamy — President
Dr. Dorita Newsome-Dobbins — President-Elect
Dr. Reginald Salter — Board Chair
Dr. Lenise N. Yarber — Vice President
Dr. Edward H. Chappelle, Jr. — Treasurer
Dr. Dante Brown — Assistant Treasurer
Dr. Bryant Jones — Secretary
Dr. Daniel Young — Assistant Secretary
Dr. Joshua B. Tyson — Speaker of the House
Dr. John Nelson — Vice Speaker of the House
Dr. Cheryle Baptiste Hill — Immediate Past President
2026 LEGISLATIVE POLICY PRIORITIES
S.B. 2084-Medicare and Medicaid Dental, Vision, and Hearing Benefit Act of 2025
Sponsor-Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD)
The National Dental Association supports expansion of dental benefits to underserved and vulnerable communities, including our elders. This bill requires Medicare coverage of dental, vision, and hearing services such as: routine dental cleanings and exams, basic and major dental services, emergency dental care, and dentures; routine eye exams, eyeglasses, and contact lenses; and routine hearing exams, hearing aids, and exams for hearing aids.
Student Loans:
Passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) in July, 2025 has created significant concern in the dental community regarding future dental student’s ability to pay for their dental education. Effective July 1, 2026, a $200,000.00 lifetime federal student loan cap will be imposed, jeopardizing the recruitment and retention of aspiring dentists, particularly those from underrepresented communities. The costs of combined undergraduate and dental education training programs typically far exceed this funding limitation. The National Dental Association strongly supports eliminating this restrictive provision of the bill.
H.R. 1219 – Oral Health Products Inclusion Act
Sponsor-Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ)
The Oral Health Products Inclusion Act purpose is to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to include over-the-counter oral healthcare products as qualified medical expenses which can be purchased with Health Savings Account (HSA) and Flexible Spending Account (FSA) funds. Dental health is often an indication of overall health. It is important that people have access to reliable oral health care products, and they are recognized as qualified medical expenses and not general expenses.
Inclusion of oral health care products encourages Americans to take charge of their own oral health. The National Dental Association and the National Dental Hygienists’ Association support H.R. 1219 – Oral health Products Inclusion Act
H.R.
2028 - Resident Education Deferred Interest Act (“REDI” ACT)
Sponsors-Brian Babin (R-TX) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA)
This legislation would extend federal student loan forgiveness and interest accrual for borrowers for the duration of their dental and medical internships and residencies. The “REDI” Act alleviates a financial burden for dentists and physicians, encourages pursuit of post-graduate training and will strengthen our healthcare workforce. By deferring interest on these student loans, our future dental workforce will not be penalized by additional unfair indebtedness, and will be better positioned to serve our communities.
Voting Rights:
There have been several recent initiatives aimed at reducing voting accessibility. The National Dental Association believes voting rights are essential, and that impediments to voting for citizens are discriminatory and should be abolished. The NDA is opposed to efforts that make voting difficult and limit the decision making power of individuals. We unequivocally support birthright citizenship and the inclusive constructs of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, an amendment that was required to right historical disgraceful wrongs. The NDA is opposed to the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility/SAVE Act” (HR 7296/S. 3752). This bill is designed to create barriers to voting by:
1. Requiring onerous and often unaffordable multiple forms of identification.
2. Complicating voter eligibility for many women and others who have had name changes.
3. Confusing seniors and others who may not have access to certified citizenship documents.
4. Requiring states to purge voter rolls
2026 Hill Policy Brief on Oral Health and Access to Dental Care
Oral health remains a structural access and fiscal issue in federal health policy. Untreated oral disease contributes to avoidable costs across maternal health, non-communicable diseases and veteran care. Affordability and reimbursement reform leads to provider gaps impacting patient access. Integrating oral health into chronic disease management is not simply a clinical issue, it is a federal cost containment strategy. Preventable dental emergency visits cost approximately 1.7 billion each year. Unlike medicine, comprehensive dental care for veterans is largely limited to service-connected conditions or those rated 100 percent disabled. Adults below 200 percent of the federal poverty level report significantly higher unmet dental need, and shortage areas overlap heavily with rural, tribal, and economically distressed communities. The average dental graduate now carries more than $300,000 in educational debt, discouraging practice in underserved areas with low reimbursement.
H.R. 1758 - Dental Loan Repayment Assistance Act of 2025
Sponsors-Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) and Yvette Clarke(D-NY)
The Dental Loan Repayment Assistance Act will allow full-time faculty who are teaching and practicing in dental clinics located in dental schools, hospitals, or community-based affiliated sites to exclude from their federal income taxes the amount of loan forgiveness from their federal student loans. Consequently, these loan assistance benefits would not continue to count as taxable income. If passed, this Bill would help to reduce workforce shortages in academia by increasing and retaining the number of dental and dental hygiene faculty.
Regulating Artificial Intelligence in Dentistry: A Federal Framework Informed by State Law
Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is rapidly transforming clinical dentistry, particularly in the areas of radiographic interpretation, caries detection, periodontal assessment, and treatment planning. Despite this rapid integration, the United States lacks a comprehensive federal legal framework governing the development and use of AI in dental practice. Federal legislation should adopt a hybrid framework informed by these state models to ensure patient safety, clarify liability, and support responsible innovation in dentistry. The integration of AI into dentistry raises complex
legal and ethical challenges, particularly in the areas of insurance practices, discrimination, and clinical decision-making authority. State laws provide a valuable foundation, but a comprehensive federal framework is necessary to:
• Protect patients
• Ensure equitable care
• Provide legal clarity
An approach incorporating risk-based regulation, transparency, anti-discrimination safeguards, and human oversight will best position the United States to regulate AI responsibly in dental practice.
The National Dental Association promotes oral health equity among people of color by harnessing the collective power of its members, advocating for the needs of and mentoring dental students of color, and raising the profile of the profession in our communities.