Marcy Foreman, RDH, BS

Dear Philips and RDH mag representatives,

There are people in this profession who are excellent clinicians. And then there are people who fundamentally change where and how dental hygiene shows up in the world. Marcy Foreman is just that. She doesn’t just practice dental hygiene. She carries it. She brings it with her, into senior centers, shelters, recovery programs, assisted living facilities, prisons, schools, and homes where patients quite literally cannot get to care on their own. Marcy is the embodiment of Heart to Hands and I cannot imagine a nominee who better represents what this award exists to honor.

Marcy has spent over three decades choosing the harder road. The one that leads directly to the people most often overlooked. Long before “access to care” became a hot topic, she was quietly doing the work. In 2010, with the support of a MassHealth grant, she founded The Traveling Toothfairy, a mobile public health dental hygiene program that delivers preventive care directly into communities where traditional dentistry does not reach. And she didn’t build it for recognition. She built it because people were hurting, homebound, aging, recovering, uninsured, forgotten. And someone needed to show up anyway.

What makes Marcy love dental hygiene is simple and profound: it allows her to meet people exactly where they are, without judgment, without barriers, and without asking them to be “ready” or “able” first. She believes oral health is not a luxury, not a reward for compliance, and not something you earn by navigating a broken system. It is a human need. And she treats it that way.

Every week (Every. Single. Week.) Marcy volunteers, coordinates, teaches, serves, and advocates. Through The Traveling Toothfairy, she provides on-site oral health screenings, cleanings, fluoride treatments, sealants, denture care, and education using portable equipment maintained to the highest CDC and OSHA standards. She customizes programs for each setting because she understands that a senior center is not a shelter, a recovery program is not a school, and a homebound patient is not just “a missed appointment.” That level of thoughtfulness is rare. That level of consistency is even rarer.

Marcy’s impact doesn’t stop with direct care. She is also shaping the future of the profession. As the External Clinic Coordinator for the Regis College Dental Hygiene Program, she ensures students don’t just learn how to provide care, but why it matters and who needs it most. She models public health dental hygiene not as a fallback, but as a calling and one that requires leadership, courage, and an unshakable sense of responsibility.

Her leadership extends statewide. Marcy currently serves as Chair of the Massachusetts Dental Hygienists Association Council on Public Health and sits on the Massachusetts Office of Oral Health Advisory Committee and the Special Commission on Oral Health. In these roles, she is not theoretical. She speaks from lived experience (decades of it) grounded in real patients, real barriers, and real solutions. In 2024, MDHA named her Public Health Dental Hygienist of the Year and even that feels like an understatement.

What strikes me most about Marcy is that she never positions herself as a hero. She doesn’t posture. She doesn’t perform. She just keeps going. She shows up for the homebound patient who hasn’t had care in years. She shows up for the senior who thinks tooth pain is “just part of aging.” She shows up for programs that don’t have the funding, the staff, or the visibility, but still have people who deserve dignity and health.

Heart to Hands award recipients are pioneers of access. They are builders. They are brave enough to work alone if they have to. They are people whose work keeps helping others. That is Marcy Foreman in every sense.

As a dental hygienist, advocate, and future dentist deeply committed to underserved communities, I can say this with complete certainty: Marcy is the standard. She is what this profession looks like when compassion is paired with action and sustained over time. She has elevated dental hygiene not by seeking a platform, but by creating pathways, quietly, persistently, and with enormous heart.

This award is meant to recognize the soul of dental hygiene, the hands that go where they are most needed, guided by a heart that never stops caring, and Marcy Foreman is exactly the hygienist this award was designed for.

Warmly and with deep respect,Aleah Diemand, RDH, BSDH