Esther Wilkins Honored for a Lifetime of Work as a Dental Educator

Esther M. Wilkins, professor emerita of the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, was selected to receive the Gies Award for Achievement by a Dental Educator from the American Dental Association.

Professor Wilkins, now 95 years old, taught at Tufts dental school for 45 years. She is a graduate of Simmons College and was one of three women in the Class of 1949 at Tufts School of Dental Medicine.

After completing dental school, she was hired to establish a dental hygiene program at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1959 she published the first edition of Clinical Practice of the Dental Hygienist. The 11th edition of the textbook, now 1,264 pages and comes with a CD-ROM, was published in January by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.