Got a Minute? Catch up with Dr. Zaneta Tutuh Hamlin (E&H ’08)
Dr. Zaneta “Zee” Hamlin (E&H ’08) has achieved a designation that only 6% of dentists ever accomplish: she is a Fellow of the Academy of General Dentistry (FAGD). The Academy of General Dentistry is a professional organization for general dentists, and Fellows have to complete 500 hours of continuing education in various disciplines and then pass a rigorous exam.
Zee says it was important to her to do this work because dentists who have this designation are leaders in the profession and they remain on the cutting edge of technology and innovation. Keep in mind that she did all this while working and also while being a mom to a 3 year-old and a 4 year-old.
She has also recently had an article published by the American Dental Association about the frustrations…and sometimes fears…of being a black woman in today’s society, even though she’s a highly regarded professional. She tells of feeling unsafe to go out to walk or run without her husband along. She also recalls too many examples of being at professional conferences where the registration table workers assumed that she was a dental assistant – instead of a general dentist. She currently works at The Foleck Center in Norfolk, Virginia, is a graduate from Howard University College of Dentistry (her father’s alma mater), and is a member of numerous honor societies and a 2017 “40 under 40” Dentist (Virginia Dental Association). “Despite my degrees, certifications and awards I have been pulled over by a police officer, with my children in the car, for no reason other than to be asked whose car I am driving. I have had a security guard follow me around in a luxury boutique.”
In the article she challenges her white peers to step up and help. “Welcome more diverse clinicians to the table, diversify leadership, diversify your circle.” It also challenges her fellow Black and Brown colleagues to be ready and willing to do the necessary work and sit at the table of those boards and committees to facilitate change.
Hear an interview with Zaneta in the WEHC archives: https://archive.org/details/OntheDuckPondWall
- Dr. Zaneta Tutuh Hamlin, E&H Class of 2008