Francine Leach

Bio

Francine Leach is the Oral Health Outreach Navigator and Dental Hygienist for the North End Community Health Centre Dental Clinic. The NECHC is a unique, collaborative health care centre that focuses on improving the overall well-being of priority populations and the community it serves through a variety of health care professionals, volunteers and student clinicians. The dental clinic is funded primarily through grants, donations and the Community Foundation Project of Nova Scotia, in partnership with Dalhousie Dentistry. Francine is also a part time faculty member of Dalhousie University’s School of Dental Hygiene, and supervises student externships at the NECHC Dental Clinic. When not at the clinic, she is out in the community promoting “Oral Health is Health” with Dalhousie’s Healthy Populations Institute and creating outreach events at local schools and organizations. Francine developed the Children and Youth Dental Program at NECHC, a new initiative which targets access to care for the youngest community members. As an exemplar model of oral health promotion and improving access to services for the North End community, the NECHC’s Dental Clinic was awarded the 2020 Canadian Dental Association Oral Health Promotion Award. Francine was awarded the Canadian Dental Hygiene Association’s 2020 Dental Hygiene Superhero award for her involvement in the profession, efforts to improve access to care and oral health promotion.