Dr. Shera Sims is a dedicated pediatric dentist with a long history of community service and volunteerism. Dr. Sims throughout her career has been focused purely on the commitment to quality care, high personal ethics and without question improving the "dental experience" for children. She has sought out every opportunity to give back to the community and stresses the importance of dental education and early intervention for prevention.
Some of her early volunteer activities originated in her hometown, Hutchinson, Kansas and traveled with her throughout college where she was a CPR and Water Safety Instructor for the American Red Cross. This early community service activity served her well in Dental School, were she was a founding member and President of the nationally recognized proactive community service group known as Students Take Action (STA).
A few of her other volunteer activities include the Kansas City Free Health – Dental Clinic; Dental Care With A Heart; the Venezuela Outreach Program; the Nevada and Theodosia Missouri UMKC sponsored Dental Outreach Programs; Special Olympics Dental Screenings; Camp Quality NWMO (A Camp For Children Afflicted With Cancer); the Kansas University Affiliated Program- KUAP Interdisciplinary Leadership Team and STA's Children's Dental Health Month Outreach.
Dr. Sims began her education at the University of Kansas where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in Biology as well as Systemics & Ecology. She continued her post-graduate education by attending the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry, where she earned her Doctorate of Dental Surgery. [Continue]
Directly following graduation from UMKC, Dr. Sims was recruited by Truman Medical Center to treat individuals with special health care needs. The program is sponsored and partially funded by the Missouri Elk's Philanthropy and provides much needed access to care for a special needs population throughout the state of Missouri.
Dr. Sims was then accepted into the General Practice Residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital's Trauma One facility in New Haven, Connecticut doing hospital based dentistry and subsequently was honored to be selected as one of the first two residents in the Pediatric Dentistry Residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Dr. Sims has won several awards during her post-graduate education, including the Dr. Albert Monsees Scholarship, the Roy J. Kemper Humanitarian Scholarship, the PEO Chapter J I Scholarship, the UMKC Women's Council Scholarship, the ADEA "Quest for Excellence" Award, the ADA/Dentsply Regional UMKC Table Clinic Competition (1st Place), the Arthur E. Iwersen Award of Excellence, the American Association of Public Health Dentistry Award and the Pierre Fauchard Academy Senior Student Award.
In addition, Dr. Sims has been published in the Journal of Clinical Pediatric Dentistry [A Case Study: Oral Complications Associated with the Treatment of Pediatric Neuroblastoma.] and is awaiting publication on a second research paper completed during her residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital [Periodontal Disease and Pre-term Delivery: Results of a Pilot Patient Education and Intervention Study].
Dr. Sims currently holds licenses in both Kansas and Missouri. She is an active member of the American Dental Association, the Missouri Dental Association, the Greater Kansas City Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, the Missouri Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry. [Back to top]