Janet Wallace is the architect and chief investigator of the translational research program, ‘Senior Smiles’ a preventive oral health care program for older people living in residential aged care facilities. Janet has spent the last 10 years working to educate oral health students and improve oral health for the frail and elderly living in residential aged care facilities. Janet has extensive clinical and managerial experience in the public and private sector, working for many years as a clinician, before joining the University of Newcastle, Australia in 2008. Since then, she has co-written undergraduate and post graduate oral health programs, including the post graduate diploma in dental therapy and the current bachelor of oral health therapy program. She has designed and written numerous continuing professional education courses and her PhD focused on a service -learning model of delivery for final year students in Residential Aged Care Facilities. Janet has numerous publications and grants totaling over a million dollars, she is a regular presenter at national and international conferences and a lobbyist for improving the oral health of older people living in residential aged care.
Janet is an honorary fellow of the Australasian Section of the International College of Dentists (2020), an Honorary Fellow in the Academy of Dentistry International (2017), a life member of the Australian Dental and Oral Health Therapists’ Association (ADOHTA) (2006), an Accreditation Assessor for the Australian Dental Council, an Assessor for the New Zealand Dental Council, an Appointed member of the Dental Council, New South Wales, the Chair of the Research and Education Committee of the Dental Council, NSW, a member of the Dental Council NSW, Health Committee and a member of the Dental Council, NSW Scope of Practice Committee. Janet was a finalist in the 2017 University of Newcastle, Alumni Awards for Exceptional Community Service and she holds a Gladys M Brawn Memorial Fellowship 2017 – 2020 and is the 2019 recipient of the Alliance for Oral Health Across Borders award for the Senior Smiles program.