IU Dental Professor to Work with Federal Legislation in Washington, D.C.
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| Dr. Joan Kowolik, recipient of the ADEA/Sunstar Americas Inc./Harry W. Bruce, Jr. Legislative Fellowship |
A fellowship recently awarded to Dr. Joan Kowolik by the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) will provide her with a unique experience working with the federal legislative process as it relates to dental education.
Kowolik, an assistant professor of pediatric dentistry, is the sole recipient of the 2007 ADEA/Sunstar Americas Inc./Harry W. Bruce, Jr. Legislative Fellowship. She will use the fellowship's $15,000 stipend to travel back and forth from Washington, D.C., where she will work on legislative issues for a cumulative total of three months during the year ahead.
ADEA, the nation's leading organization for dental educators, is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Kowolik will function as an ADEA staff member in the Center for Public Policy and Advocacy, working on issues pertaining to the current legislative agenda. Her responsibilities will include a wide range of activities and may involve drafting policy, bills, position papers, and testimony; educating members of Congress and the Executive Branch on matters of interest in dental education; and playing a role on various coalitions.
The issues Kowolik will become involved with will depend on what is going on in Congress at the time, but must include work with the Children's Dental Health Improvement Act (S.739), she says. "I will work on any dental or dental education issues which are on the books. My particular interest is in children, especially those who live in the 'working poor' households - people who are unheard and unnoticed most of the time."
Kowolik sees her position as a teacher in the dental school's busy pediatric dentistry clinic as an advantage in her upcoming work with legislators. "I realize that the legislators, both nationally and locally, do not experience first-hand the situations in which I find myself, and if anything is to change, it must involve informing the lawmakers."
Kowolik has held previous positions in ADEA as a Primary Health Care Policy Fellow in the Department of Health and Human Services and as a Leadership Institute Fellow. A dental graduate of the University of Edinburgh and former faculty member at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, Kowolik has been serving on the IU dental faculty since 1998.
"I am of course excited about the opportunity to learn more about the methods of volunteer advocacy, and then to put these skills to use," she says.
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