Dr. Shakalpi Pendurkar was appointed State Dental Director of California and oversees the Office of Oral Health at California Department of Public Health. Prior to joining CDPH, Dr. Pendurkar directed the Oral Health Programs for San Mateo and Alameda Counties, was Dental Director of Health Plan of San Mateo, and the lead advisor for the Santa Clara Oral Health Program. For over two decades she has provided dental care at Gardner Health Services, a Federally Qualified Health Center in the Bay Area. Before moving to California, she was an Epidemiology Consultant for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Dr. Pendurkar is a member of the California Dental Association, American Dental Association, and the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors. She is a Fellow of the American and International College of Dentists. Dr. Pendurkar and the CDPH Office of Oral Health are committed to promoting oral health equity for all Californians. 

Dr. Paul Glassman is the Associate Dean for Research and Community Engagement at the College of Dental Medicine at California Northstate University in Elk Grove, CA and Professor Emeritus at the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni, School of Dentistry in San Francisco, CA.  He has served on many national panels including the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Committee on Oral Health Access to Services which produced the IOM report on Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Vulnerable and Underserved Populations. 

Dr. Glassman has had many years of dental practice experience treating patients with complex conditions and has published and lectured extensively in the areas of Hospital Dentistry, Dentistry for Patients with Special Needs, Dentistry for Individuals with Medical Disabilities, Dentistry for Patients with Dental Fear, Geriatric Dentistry, and Oral Health Systems reform.  He has a long career working with special populations in a variety of practice and community settings. Dr. Glassman is a pioneer and has led the national movement to improve oral health using telehealth-connected teams and Virtual Dental Homes. Dr. Glassman has been prominent in advocacy efforts on a state and national level for health system reform to improve oral health systems for a wide variety of underserved groups.

Susan Fisher-Owens is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics in the UCSF School of Medicine, and Clinical Professor of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences in the UCSF School of Dentistry.  She serves on the California State Oral Health Plan and the California Perinatal and Infant Oral Health Quality Advisory Board, as well as the Integrated Coordinating Committee for CavityFreeSF.  She is the Lead Consultant on Fluoride for the Office of Oral Health, California Department of Public Health.  She practices at Zuckerberg San Francisco General, the county public hospital, and created an award-winning and sustainable oral health clinic embedded in their pediatric outpatient clinic.  Dr. Fisher-Owens works with physicians on how to prevent oral disease in children or control it in adults (particularly pregnant women), and with dentists on how to work with children and incorporate context of care. Her research on a conceptual model of children’s oral health is cited internationally, and her current research focuses on oral health disparities, and fluoride.

Dana Durham is the Chief of the Medi-Cal Dental Services Division within the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). She has full management responsibility for administering the Medi-Cal Dental Services Program (Dental Fee for Service and Dental Managed Care), which provides dental services to over 14 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries. Prior to joining the Medi-Cal Dental Services Program, Ms. Durham had over ten years of administrative and managerial experience within DHCS in physical health for Medi-Cal Managed Care. She has extensive experience and knowledge working in health care policy planning, development, and implementation.  She has over sixteen years of experience serving Californians as a public servant and additional over 10 years of experience working in the healthcare industry.