KHI News Service
TOPEKA — A new director has been hired for the Bureau of Oral Health at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Agency officials said Dr. Cathy Taylor-Osborne, a dentist, will begin the job on Friday.
She currently is dental director at Cabot Westside Medical and Dental Center, a federally qualified health center in Kansas City, Mo.
“We are delighted that Dr. Taylor will be joining our team and taking on this important role in our work with partners to improve oral health in Kansas. She brings a wealth of dental practice and leadership experience to the oral health director’s position and shares KDHE’s commitment to improving health outcomes through evidence-based strategies,” said KDHE Secretary Dr. Robert Moser in a prepared statement.
KDHE officials said Osborne-Taylor established a dental clinic in Bangalore, India in 2011 during an extended mission trip.
She received a doctorate in dental surgery from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a master of arts degree in bioethics and health policy from Loyola University.
“I’m excited for this opportunity to serve Kansans in the capacity of dental director at the state health department. Though I will certainly miss my patients, I look forward to the challenge to excel in a statewide public health setting through a new role of assessment, policy development and assurance,” Taylor said.
She will fill a vacancy created in September 2013 when Dr. Kathy Weno left KDHE for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to be director of oral health at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Jennifer Ferguson, manager of KDHE’s Children’s Oral Health, has been the bureau’s acting director.
Moser say Taylor-Osborne also would work with the KDHE Division of Health Care Finance, which oversees the state’s Medicaid or KanCare program. KanCare provides some preventive dental care to its enrollees.
Taylor was a dental hygienist for 15 years before pursuing her DDS degree. She operated a private dental practice in Overland Park between 2001 and 2011.