Celebrating Research, Our Future and Dental Hygienists!
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* Rebecca S. Wilder

![Figure1](http://jdh.adha.org/https://jdh.adha.org/content/jdenthyg/90/suppl_1/4/F1.medium.gif)

[Figure1](http://jdh.adha.org/content/90/suppl_1/4/F1)

This issue of the Journal of Dental Hygiene is celebrating some of the most talented dental hygienists we have who are contributing to our science! It is with great pleasure that I have the opportunity to highlight their accomplishments in this special print issue. As we look to the future it will be important to have our profession led by committed dental hygienists who recognize the importance of research and publishing.

The ADHA/Sigma Phi Alpha Journalism Award competition has been in existence for several years. The competition is made possible through a grant from Johnson and Johnson Healthcare Products, Division of McNEIL PPC, Inc. We now have two categories for the award at the Master of Science/Doctoral level and at the Baccalaureate level. It is a very competitive process and can be quite challenging if the paper is the first one the student has ever submitted for publication. We are pleased to be publishing the two winning manuscripts from the 2015 competition. The schools that produced the winning manuscripts are the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (undergraduate winner) and the University of Missouri-Kansas City (graduate winner).

We are also pleased to share the winner of the 3rd Annual Journal of Dental Hygiene Best Paper Award. This year, an independent panel of judges reviewed all original research project papers that were published in the Journal of Dental Hygiene from January to December 2015. They had specific criteria to utilize to judge the manuscripts and were tasked with selecting the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners. Although the papers have already been published in our digital journal, we are pleased to present the 1st and 2nd place manuscripts in full and the abstract of the 3rd place winner in this print supplement. The schools represented are the Forsyth School of Dental Hygiene at MCPHS University (first place), the Pacific University (runner-up), and the University of Missouri-Kansas City (third place). Congratulations to the authors of these important papers!

Finally, none of these papers would have been possible without outstanding mentoring from dental hygiene and dental faculty members who assisted, encouraged, edited and helped guide these students and authors through the writing process. We know it is not easy to mentor a novice writer but it is so worth it in the end! These students are our future leaders, scholars, educators and innovators. Mentors… thank you! And thank you J&J for helping us showcase our winning manuscripts!

Enjoy CLL and Pittsburgh!

Sincerely,

Rebecca Wilder, RDH, BS, MS

Editor–in–Chief, Journal of Dental Hygiene

*   Copyright © 2016 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association