Rural Primary Care and Integration Coordinator
Kelly Braun, RDH, MSDH, serves as the rural primary care and integration coordinator at PORH. Kelly leads the office’s technical assistance activities for Rural Health Clinics (RHC) in Pennsylvania. She has completed the National Association of Rural Health Clinic’s Certified Rural Health Clinic Professional program and can offer mock RHC surveys to Pennsylvania’s RHCs. In addition to technical assistance, Kelly focuses on care integration, with a special emphasis on oral health. Kelly implemented in Pennsylvania the DentaQuest Institute-funded (now CareQuest) program, the Medical Oral Expanded Care (MORE Care) Collaborative. This program focused on integrating oral health, specifically the primary and secondary prevention of dental disease, into primary care practice in RHCs.
A Registered Dental Hygienist and a Public Health Dental Hygiene Practitioner, Kelly worked in a hospital-based clinical practice prior to coming to PORH. She also serves as the Executive Director of the American Board of Dental Public Health and is an adjunct faculty member for Concorde Career College’s dental hygiene program. Kelly holds an A.S. and a B.S. in Dental Hygiene (BSDH) from the Pennsylvania College of Technology. She obtained an M.S. in Dental Hygiene (MSDH), with an emphasis on education, from the University of Bridgeport in 2013. Kelly completed the National Rural Health Association’s Fellows program in 2021.