American Fluoridation Institute Leadership

Charles Haynie is a retired general and vascular surgeon. A native Oregonian, he graduated from the University of Missouri Medical school with residency training at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Pathology and General Surgery. Dr. Haynie is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a past board member of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, and past president of the Oregon Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, and the Oregon Rural Health Association. Dr. Haynie is also a member of the Oregon Public Health Association and an Emeritus member of the Oregon Medical Association. Dr. Haynie first became a water fluoridation proponent in 2001, while serving on the Hood River City Council. In addition to his leadership role with the American Fluoridation Institute, he is a founding member and Emeritus Director of the American Fluoridation Society. In 2015, Dr. Haynie received the Campaign for Dental Health’s Fluoridation Determination Award. When not relentlessly supporting water fluoridation, he plays the five-string banjo with his bluegrass band, “Hardshell Harmony,” and the rock cover band, “The Rezurectors.”

Myron Allukian is an internationally recognized public health expert and served as the Dental Director for the City of Boston for 34 years. Dr. Allukian received his dental degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his MPH from Harvard University. He is board certified in dental public health, and served as Chairman of the U.S. Surgeon General’s Work Group on Fluoridation and Dental Health for the 1990 Prevention Objectives for the Nation, and the Dental Advisory Committees for Healthy People 2000, 2010, and 2020, the National Health Objectives. Dr. Allukian is a past president of the American Public Health Association (APHA), the second dentist in APHA’s then 118-year history and the first Vietnam Veteran to be President of APHA. He’s also the past president of seven national and state organizations and associations as well as past chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Dentistry. The author of more than 160 publications and abstracts including 23 chapters in books, he has extensive experience in community water fluoridation in addition to oral health access, policy, vulnerable populations, prevention, education, and healthcare delivery systems. Dr. Allukian sits on the faculties at the Schools of Dental Medicine of Boston, Harvard and Tufts Universities, and is a consultant to New York University Langone Health, and a trustee of the New England College of Optometry. He is the recipient of over 50 national and international distinguished service awards, and in 2015, he received the Fluoridation Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Campaign for Dental Health. Dr. Allukian currently serves in leadership roles for the Massachusetts Coalition for Oral Health, the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA), and Vice President of the American Fluoridation Society.

Kurt L. Ferré is a 1976 graduate of Northwestern University Dental School in Chicago, Illinois. He completed a one-year general practice residency at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital in the same city and relocated to Portland, Oregon, in May 1980. He retired in 2008, after a 28 ½ year career with Permanente Dental Associates also in Portland, Oregon. He is a past-president of the Multnomah Dental Society and he currently serves on the dental advisory board for Medical Teams International. Dr. Ferré is a regular volunteer on a Medical Teams International mobile dental unit and was the president of the board as well as the volunteer dental director for Creston Children’s Dental Clinic in SE Portland for more than eight years until the clinic, sadly, closed in late 2018. In 2015, Dr. Ferré was one of five individuals who formed the American Fluoridation Society, a grass-roots advocacy organization, which has vehemently supported community water fluoridation during challenges both domestically and internationally. Away from dentistry, Dr. Ferré, is an avid, fair-weather cyclist and he loves to hike and hunt for wild mushrooms.

Lynn Ann Bethel Short, has been a licensed oral health professional for 40 years, working in public health as a clinician, administrator, and educator. For almost a decade, she worked in a leadership role as the Massachusetts State Dental Director. Ms. Short has worked in higher education for more than two decades and is currently an adjunct faculty at the University of Bridgeport, in Connecticut. She has expertise in promoting community-based prevention programs for rural/urban settings and in 2017, was active in a campaign to change Nevada law to fluoridate Washoe County. The recipient of professional awards and honors, Ms. Short received a Governor’s Citation (2012) from then Governor Deval Patrick for her leadership improving the health of the residents of Massachusetts as well as an Outstanding Achievement Award (2015) from the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors. Ms. Short is a member of Sigma Phi Alpha Honor Society and a 2020 inductee to Delta Phi, the UNR chapter of Delta Omega, the national public health honor society. In addition, she is a past chair of the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association, and an active member of the World Federation of Public Health Associations’ Oral Health Working Group.

Bruce W. Austin grew up on a farm in southern Oregon and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon before attending the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) School of Dentistry, graduating in 1985. After an Army residency and then serving in a one-dentist clinic in Germany for three years, he returned to Oregon, where he’s practiced in various settings. He also taught at OHSU and in various dental assisting and dental hygiene programs and is currently a part-time clinical instructor in Oregon Institute of Technology’s Dental Hygiene Program.  In 2010 he took a hiatus from full-time dentistry to attend massage school to focus on sports massage and massage for TMJ symptoms. During that time, he established a dental clinic at the Albany Boys and Girls Club. In 2015, Dr. Austin became Oregon’s first state dental director working in the Oregon Health Authority. He left this position in March of 2020 – the same day he issued an order for all Oregon dentists to cease routine treatment due to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, Dr. Austin is dental director for the Native American Rehabilitation Association, a federally qualified health center in Portland, as well as actively pursuing state public health dentistry initiatives, and working to increase the number of Oregonians with access to optimally fluoridated water.

Emily Firman, MPH, MSW founded Firman Strategies in 2020 to inspire and encourage communities to support science-based policies. She has over 15 years of experience working in oral health promotion and community engagement with a focus on population health. She led the Arcora Foundation’s work to increase access to fluoridation for eight years and continues to work with them to support Mouth Matters physician training and select projects. She serves on the Advisory Council to FluorideExposed.org and is a past member of the Leadership Advisory Council of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Campaign for Dental Health.   

Past employers include the Tacoma-Pierce County Department of Public Health, Harborview Medical Center – Madison Clinic, and the Center for Oral Health in California where she helped staff the California Fluoridation Task Force and was involved in successful efforts to fluoridate in Inglewood, Santa Monica, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, the Helix Water District, and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Kimberlie Payne is a Registered Dental Hygienist with over 30 years of clinical experience. In 2006, she took a leadership role as the Dental Director for the state of North Dakota working to expand access to care as well as implement oral health educational and prevention programs for the state’s residents. During her tenure, Ms. Payne assisted in maintaining 94% of the state’s population received optimally fluoridated water.

Ms. Payne served a two-year term as President of the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors, a non-profit organization, which represents the directors and personnel within the 50 U.S. states and territories’ oral health programs.

Currently, Ms. Payne is consulting for various non-profit organizations to assist their efforts in advancing dental public health. When not working, she spends time with her family and dogs, and enjoys the varied outdoor activities that Arizona has to offer including hiking, biking, skiing, and play tennis.