Global Health Nexus, Summer 2001

A Visit from News Channel 4

Last fall an NBC-TV News Channel 4 team came aboard the Smiling Faces, Going Places van to report on the College’s new program to provide care for medically-underserved urban children. Narrated by Dr. Ian Smith, the report focused on the critical need for routine dental services among children who don’t usually receive treatment because their families can’t afford to pay for private care or encounter barriers in trying to access Medicaid-funded dental services. The report also underscored the benefits for youngsters of exposure to members of the van’s staff who serve as role models, including the supervising dentist, Dr. Anthony Johnson, who is African-American. “When I was young,” said Dr. Johnson, “the doctors I saw didn’t look like me.”