First paying job: “I did babysitting. But I also flipped burgers at Hardee’s — it was my first two years of college, 1989 and 1990, so I could buy a car.”

If oral health is to improve in West Virginia, Gina Sharps likely will play a role. A native of Taylor County, Sharps earned a bachelor of science degree in dental hygiene from West Virginia University in 1993.

Sharps has served adults in general practice and at the Susan Dew Hoff Memorial Clinic in West Milford and has served young people as a hygienist in pediatric and adolescent dentistry.

Over time, she developed a focus on the needs of children and, in 2006, she became assistant director of the Childhood Oral Health Project in the Office of Rural Health at the WVU Health Sciences Center.

Sharps is increasing the Health Sciences Center’s role in childhood oral health. She works to strengthen curricula in schools and to expand the Coronary Artery Risk Detection in Appalachian Communities project into dental areas.

Sharps quoted the 4-H pledge for clearer thinking, greater loyalty, larger service and better living.

“When you’re brought up to believe in that pledge, you incorporate those values,” she said. “I would attribute a lot of what I do now to the way I was brought up through 4-H.”

Sharps is now a 4-H volunteer leader and has been recognized by the WVU Extension Service and its federal partner for her work with the 4-H Dental Health Initiative.

She also speaks with pride about her work with the West Virginia Head Start Association, which led her to participate in the creation of a nationally recognized training DVD.

Sharps is an affiliate member of the West Virginia Dental Association and the National Association of Public Health Dentistry.

She has appeared as a professional witness before a West Virginia legislative committee and speaks at community organizations and in the media on the subject of oral health.

“Gina helps communities understand that ‘the mouth is connected to the body’ and not a stand-alone health issue,” wrote nominator Beverly Railey Robinson of the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. “She shows us that it will take more than the traditional dental community to solve West Virginia’s severe oral health problems.”

Sharps lives in Bridgeport with her husband, Craig.