Dr. Booker, a practicing pediatric dentist based in Owings Mills, Maryland, is the founder of Brushtime Products, Inc., a company that manufactures child-friendly dental hygiene products. She is also the Acting Executive Director of the nonprofit Children’s Oral Health Institute, which she created in 1996 to focus on research surrounding children’s oral health and programs to empower children and their families with good dental hygiene practices.
Dr. Booker began her career in 1988 as an associate dentist in Baltimore private practices. From 1990 to 1994, she was a clinic dentist with the Baltimore City Health Department. She also purchased her first private practice in 1990. From 1994 – 1996, she trained at the Children’s National Medical Center in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry, where she served as chief resident from 1994-95. Following her residency, she was invited and joined the staff as a faculty, attending.
In 1996, Dr. Booker received her Certificate in Pediatric Dentistry and went on to re-establish her private practice as the Pediatric Dental Center. In 2001, she became principal owner of Valley Dental Pediatrics. Prior to opening her practice in Owings Mills, Dr. Booker spent 14 years serving children in heart of Baltimore City.
Dr. Booker has held numerous leadership positions. In 1999 she was appointed by the president of the National Dental Association to serve on the Oral Health Committee for the Surgeon General’s Commission on Oral Health in America. She served a two-term appointment on the Maryland Department of Health and Dental Hygiene’s Oral Health Advisory Board. In 2007 she again received appointments by the Maryland Secretary of Health & Mental Hygiene to serve on the Dental Action Committee (DAC) and the Maryland Medicaid Advisory Committee. She is a member of the American Dental Hygiene Association, Access to Industry Board and is the Immediate Past President of the Maryland Dental Society.
Since 1998, Dr. Booker has been a media spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, and she was the secretary/treasurer of the Maryland Academy of Pediatric Dentistry from 1998 until 2000. In 2000, she served in a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services peer review group formed to monitor and evaluate Pediatric Dentistry Grant Programs.
Dr. Booker has serve as a docent for the National Museum of Dentistry since 2000.
She presently acts as a consultant for the following organizations: Maryland Physician Care, Ethnic Health America and Pacifica Radio in Oakland, California. She was a consultant for DC’s Head Start Bureau in 1996.
Dr. Booker has contributed to articles for the Baltimore Sun , Parents magazine, Health Quest magazine, Journal of the American Dental Association, ADANews, The Daily Record Maryland, HCPLive, Healthy Dental Solutions and Woman Dentist Journal.
Dr. Booker received a B.S. degree in Biology from Tennessee State University and a Doctor of Dental Surgery from Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee. She earned her Certificate in Pediatric Dentistry from the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Disclosures: None to report