Press Release
For more information about Erie Family Health Center, please contact Valerie Comprelli at 312.432.7463 or vcomprelli@eriefamilyhealth.org
Erie Family Health Center is the First Organization to Ever Receive the Oral Health Champion Award
At the National Primary Oral Health Conference held November 2-4, 2009 in Nashville, Tennessee, Erie Family Health Center received the distinguished Oral Health Champion Award. The honor was given as part of the National Network for Oral Health Access (NNOHA) Outstanding Achievement awards at the annual conference. In the past, this particular award has been presented to individuals; however, this year Erie Family Health Center was honored as the first organization to receive the Oral Health Champion Award. Each year NNOHA presents awards to individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to high quality oral health care for underserved populations. The four awards honor presented are the Lifetime Achievement Award, Oral Health Champion Award, Outstanding Leadership Award and Outstanding Clinician Award.
-Oral Health Champion Award: Erie Family Health Center (Accepted by Dr. Lee Francis, CEO, and Dr. Ghassan Souri, Dental Director); Lifetime Acheivement Award: Dr. Neal Demby; Outstanding Leadership Award: Ted A. Kay; Outstanding Clinician Award: Dr. Charles Connell (not pictured)
Erie Family Health Center was presented the Oral Health Champion Award which honors the vision, leadership and contributions of the organization “I’m honored/excited that NNOHA is recognizing the hard work of the people who went from ‘zero to sixty’ with launching Erie’s oral health services over the past five years,” says Dr. Gus Souri, Oral Health Program Director and dentist.
Erie was selected because of its efforts in prioritizing oral health programs, a dedication to the Health Center community, continual partnership building and an ongoing promotion of oral health as part of overall health. “Five years ago, Erie had no dentists, no state of the art dental health centers and no access to oral health care for our patient population,” says Dr. Lee Francis, President and CEO of Erie Family Health Center. “When I heard about the award, I felt a sense of great accomplishment on behalf of the achievements of our staff and the communities we serve.”
Erie Family Health Center’s Oral Health Program increases access to affordable, culturally competent oral health care for low-income Latinos on the West/Northwest sides of Chicago. Its target population is children, pregnant women, diabetic adults, their nuclear families and people with HIV/AIDS. The Program has increased access to dental care; is innovative in its use of technology and the latest oral health techniques; improves the field of community dentistry by training dental students; and has excellent internal leadership. Erie’s dental centers are state-of-the-art and provide our patients the same level of care found at the most expensive private dental offices. “This is the first national recognition for our oral health programs,” says Dr. Francis. “Although we are still growing our oral health services, this award indicates we are doing it in innovative ways.”
