Speaker, author, and vulnerable populations advocate, Sherri Lukes has been a dental hygienist for 45 years, holding advanced degrees in education. She is associate professor Emerita, Southern Illinois University, where she taught general and oral pathology, public health, and multicultural dental hygiene. Her research focus was oral pathology and migrant farmworker oral health, resulting in multiple peer reviewed publications. Sherri enjoys integrating her years of experience into continuing education courses and publications to empower dental professionals in the process of care. She serves as a professional educator and key opinion leader for multiple corporate entities. She is an approved speaker of and holds a pathology fellowship in the American Academy of Dental Hygiene and is a past president of the Illinois Dental Hygienists’ Association. Community service includes current President of the Board of Directors, Rural Health, Inc., Volunteer Presenter, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention-IL, and twenty five years of annual trips to southern Mexico, delivering preventive care in an orphanage and remote villages. Honors include Community Service, Research, and Teacher of the Year awards at SIU, Illinois Department of Public Health Oral Health Champion, the Sunstar/RDH Award of Distinction, Western Society of Periodontology Dental Hygiene speaker of the year, and ADHA Award for Excellence in Dental Hygiene.