02/03/2021
Congratulations! Brava Tesha!!!!
Today's 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 highlight is 🌟🌟🌟Tesha J Cagle RDH, PHDHP, the Dental Diversity Diva. Tesha was born and raised in Trenton, NJ where she and her two sisters were the first African American children to integrate a small Catholic School called Immaculate Conception. At the age of five, she was already keenly aware of her race and how it played a role in how she was treated. She faced some challenges during her 6 years at that school but as fate would have it, Immaculate Conception had a partnership program with a nearby Catholic school named Sister Georgine School which, was a school for children with special needs. It was there that she learned to love and celebrate the differences in humanity. After high school and a short time as a Certified Nursing Assistant, she began her path to her career as a Registered Dental Hygienist, where again she was faced with being the only African American in her incoming class. Now with 10 years of clinical experience and a diversity trainer certification, she wants to ensure that the dental community is more inclusive and accepting of different cultures. Her goal is to reduce racial, gender, sexuality, age, and disability bias in the hiring process, minimize tensions and incidents of harassment in the office, and increase the patients comfort and confidence in their providers cultural awareness and sensitivity.
As part of her unyielding efforts, she has had an article published in DentistryIQ, and has been asked to speak at the National Mobile Dental Conference and Dentistry got talent in 2021. We look forward to seeing what the future holds for the Dental Diversity Diva as she tries to make the world of dentistry a more inclusive one for both practitioners and patients.
