Karen Brungardt-Davis, RDH, BS, MSDH

 

Karen grew up in dentistry with her dad being a dentist, and one of her first summer jobs was working at his office cleaning and answering the phones! In 2001, Karen graduated from UMKC-SOD, with a BSDH. For many years she worked at the same small private practice office on the Plaza in Kansas City. In 2013 she returned to school and completed a master’s degree in DH education.

For the next six years Karen worked part-time in private practice, taught in clinic part-time at three different schools, and worked on finishing her degree; she completed her MSDH in 2019 and one of our graduation requirements was to present our research to the dental community. So, in June of 2019 Karen went to the ADHA convention in Louisville, KY to present and won first place at the Dentsply-Sirona Graduate Research Competition. As the first-place winner she was invited to represent ADHA at The International Association of Dental Research (IADR) annual convention in March 2020. Karen is very proud to have started a non profit called The Humanitarian Hygienist’s Alliance- a 501c3, dedicated to helping hygienists affected by COVID and The Minted Hygienist, an LLC, dedicated to helping dental hygienists beat career burnout.  

Karen works hard daily to help promote the profession of dental hygiene and is thrilled to have been chosen as the MDHA Vice President. Karen expresses being impressed by the passion and dedication of the other members of the board and looks forward to seeing where the next few years will take us as an organization. Karen has two beautiful children that she adores.