10 Under 10: Tennessee dentist aims to change future of dentistry from inside out
Not all heroes wear capes or stand in the spotlight. Some are hidden, working behind the scenes to understand the bigger picture of structural inequity to find a path toward change.
That’s the approach 2024 ADA 10 Under 10 Award winner Jessica C. Williams, D.M.D., has taken in her dental and public health career.
Dr. Williams' interest in health care started at an early age, triaging her Barbie dolls and participating in science programs in and out of school.
“When I taped together my broken Barbies, that’s how my mom knew I would work in health care,” she laughed.
Dr. Williams grew up with parents who supported their children's interests in science or business, with a layer of social justice on top. Her parents — mom, a journalist, and dad, a photographer — taught their children they should understand history and its impact on the present. That understanding also meant being aware of policy and how it impacts marginalized communities in America.
“Whatever I chose, it would include a sense of justice and fairness to marginalized people,” Dr. Williams said.
When she enrolled at Howard University, she found synergies between her interests in health care and history, especially Black history in America. She was on the path toward medical school and becoming an OB-GYN when her life changed.
During her freshman year at Howard, a pathway program director told her not to be a physician but a dentist instead.
“Being a dentist wasn’t even on my radar,” Dr. Williams said.
But that life-changing moment ultimately set her on a path that combined her love of social justice, history, community service and health care. Instead of focusing on medical school, she pivoted toward dental school and explored the various ways she could apply these themes within dentistry.
“I’m always about the big picture, which is interesting because dentistry is the most micro you can get,” she said.
It was through interning in college with Oral Health America that her interest in public health — and specifically, dental public health — took bloom and changed her perception of dentistry being only “micro” in focus.
“I was doing something every summer in college, and my experience with Oral Health America was another life-changing moment,” Dr. Williams said. “My time there still guides my career today.”
As an intern with Oral Health America, Dr. Williams shadowed a pediatric dentist in Washington, D.C., and interned with the organization in Chicago. From those experiences, she saw firsthand how dentists are impacted by policy and business. She expanded her interest in public health and dental public health to focus more on policy and advocacy so she could make a greater impact on a larger number of people.
After her internship in Chicago with Oral Health America ended, she attended dental school at the University of Illinois Chicago. During that time, she focused on her clinical dental skills and pursued a certificate program at the university’s School of Public Health.
After graduating from the University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry, she enrolled in the Students to Service Loan Repayment Program — part of the National Health Service Corps — and completed three years as a federally qualified health center dentist in rural Iowa.
Practicing dentistry in both urban and rural communities showed Dr. Williams the similarities between access-to-care issues in each, including transportation and financial limitations, as well as the differences. This exposure rekindled her interest in policy and advocacy to help make the U.S. health care system more available, affordable and fair to all populations.
As she wrapped up her Students to Service commitment, Dr. Williams found herself in a unique position. Now, with a dental degree and clinical experience, she could apply that toward her other passion: public health. She was presented with the opportunity to enroll in a two-year dental public health program at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine and graduated with a master’s degree and certificate in dental public health.
Up to this point in her career, Dr. Williams collected experiences and was exposed to various corners of the dental industry — both clinical and administrative — and when she graduated from Boston University, she was faced with an abundance of choice, which made the next path in her career a bit fuzzy.
Surprising her friends and family, she decided to enroll at Meharry Medical College for a one-year general practice residency. Attending another historically Black college and university to bookend her education and training experience felt right for Dr. Williams, and Meharry was supportive of her interest in dental public health and nontraditional background.
Through her residency, Dr. Williams is gaining more firsthand experience within the U.S. health care system to better understand it from the inside out to drive change. Once she finishes her residency, she plans to work within corrections, providing dental services to incarcerated populations to learn more about issues in that sphere and see how she can help.
“I can’t be in just one world,” she said. “I want to weave together my interests and education in administration, ‘big picture’ thinking and clinical patient time.”
Looking back at her career to date, Dr. Williams knew when moments were going to change her life, even if she didn’t know where they would lead her. Leaning on her internal compass, she’s been fortunate to have time when these moments occur to pause before deciding what to do next.
“To have so many possibilities of what I could do has been kind of daunting, but I have also been fortunate to have that in my career — to make these choices however I wanted,” she said. “I want each thing in my life to be a moment and to be something special.”
Learn more about the 10 Under 10 Awards program at ADA.org/10Under10 and get inspired at SmileCon's Changemakers Celebration, which will recognize this year’s 10 Under 10 winners and other award recipients.
