Tina Daniels

Sidebar: To the Rescue in Russia

Tina Daniels
Dental Hygiene Professor, North Campus

Before she came to this city in northern Russia, preventive dental care as we know it in the U.S. was nonexistent. To Tina Daniels, a dire call to action was the sight of distressed children waiting for their turn at clinics where extractions were routine.
 
With the backing and knowledge of Jacksonville dentists, health administrators, educators, local government leaders including then Mayor John Delaney – and their Russian counterparts – a team from Jacksonville Sister Cities led efforts to start a dental hygiene education program in the snowy port of Murmansk on the Arctic Ocean.
 
Daniels helped to research the need, develop the grant program and write the curriculum. She taught dental hygiene instrumentation to Dr. Anjelika Gorobchenko and other Russian stomotologists (dentists) at North Campus for a year. Prior to their visit to Florida, Daniels spent time at Kent Campus studying the Russian language.
 
Professor Daniels and her colleagues accomplished all that they set out to do. The results of their work and caring continue to come in many forms. The most gratifying are healthy smiles in the sister city. This model program has now made its way into other communities in need. One of the happiest times of her career was graduation day for 15 Murmansk students in 2000. This was the first of many classes to come.
 
In 2004 she received a very special honor. Daniels was selected to present her abstract of the project to an audience of dentistry professionals from around the world at the 16th International Symposium on Dental Hygiene in Madrid, Spain. On one of her Powerpoint slides was the overall program goal: “To assist the Murmansk city health administration to improve the quality and delivery of preventive and oral health care services in the region, especially for the children.”

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