Jeanne C. Sinkford 1933–

“Turned the Other Cheek”

Entered Nontraditional Profession

First Female Dental School Dean

Sources

Dentist, educator, college administrator, researcher, lecturer

Jeanne C. Sinkford, dean emeritus of the Howard University College of Dentistry, is a distinguished administrator, educator, researcher, lecturer, and clinician. She broke race and gender barriers in her rise to the top of her profession. The first woman dean of an American dental school, Sinkford graduated first in her class at Howard University. Committed to community service and social responsibility, Jeanne Sinkford has reached out and responded in full to the demands of her profession, striving to meet the needs of her patients and students as well as those of various dental research associations and government and community groups devoted to dental education and study. Sinkford has also been widely praised for her efforts to recruit women and minority students to the dental profession.

One of four daughters of Richard E. Craig and Geneva Jefferson Craig, Jeanne Frances Craig Sinkford was born on January 30, 1933, in Washington, D.C. Geneva Craig was born in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, and moved to the Washington area around 1920. She worked for the U.S. Commerce Department for 20 years before retiring in 1964 as a classified documents printing supervisor. Prior to her death in 1989, Geneva Craig had been a member of Campbell African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, the Rosicrucians, and the Bridge to Freedom organization. Richard Craig, who had worked for St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, died in 1964. Jeanne Craig married Stanley M. Sinkford on December 8, 1951. They had three children, Dianne Sylvia, Janet Lynn, and Stanley M.

Education was important to the Craig family. Geneva Craig was a school teacher before she became involved in government service. Jeanne Sinkford studied ballet and dance for eight years and received a scholarship offer for extended training in New York City. Her parents responded with a firm refusal when she told them of her plans to quit high school and leave for New York. At 16 years of age, Jeanne Sinkford finished Washington’s Dunbar High School.

“Turned the Other Cheek”

In an essay in Legacy, the Dental Profession, Sinkford noted: “I grew up in a loving home, where religion was synonymous with life. My beliefs, therefore, centered around strong relationships among family members that have formed the basis for loving and concerned actions throughout my life. Dreams are a part of my early existence. My dreams later became desires for achievement and actions which demanded a life of order and discipline. Being a minority and a woman required a strong work ethic, a sense of morality and decency, a willingness to ‘turn the other cheek’ and a sincere motivation to help those who are less fortunate and underprivileged.”

Sinkford’s family was not financially well off, but all four

At a Glance…

Born January 30, 1933, in Washington, DC, daughter of Richard E. Craig (a hospital worker) and Geneva Jefferson Craig (classified documents printing supervisor); married Stanley M. Sinkford (pediatric cardiologist), December 8, 1951; children: DianneSylvia, Janet Lynn, and Stanley M. Education: Howard University, B.S., Phi Beta Kappa, 1953; D.D.S., 1958; Northwestern University, School of Dentistry, M.S., 1962, Ph.D. in physiology, 1963.

Howard University College of Dentistry, chair of prosthodontics, 1964-67; associate dean, 1967-74; dean, 1975-91 ; professor and dean emeritus, 1991 —. Office of Women and Minority Affairs, American Association of Dental Schools, Washington, DC, director, 1991—. Served as a trustee advisor to the American Fund for Dental Health, 1975-84.

Selected awards: Alumni achievement awards from Northwestern University, 1970, and Howard University, 1976; inducted into the International College of Dentists, 1974; one of the first Candace Award winners, National Coalition of 100 Black Women, 1982; Award of Merit, Board of Directors of the American Fund for Dental Health, 1984. She has also been honored for her work with the United Negro College Fund and has received honorary doctorates from Georgetown University School of Dentistry, 1978, and University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, 1992.

Member: American Prosthodontic Society, International Association of Dental Research, Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, National Medical Association.

Addresses: Home—1765 Verbena Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20012.

daughters were encouraged to obtain as much education as possible, so they worked out a “family plan” whereby the elder girl would help the next in line upon finishing college. However, Sinkford’s education took eight years and her younger sister wound up helping her instead, even though Sinkford had scholarships all the way through Howard University and summer jobs to lighten the financial load. Among the four daughters, Jeanne and Joyce went into medicine and Janet and Julia chose careers in education.

Sinkford majored in psychology and chemistry as a Phi Beta Kappa undergraduate at Howard University. When she was 18 years old and a junior in college, she met and married a young medical student, Stanley M. Sinkford. Jeanne Sinkford initially spurned medical school, fearing that she would be forced to compete with her husband. The young couple wanted mutually compatible careers. She considered graduate work in psychology or dental hygiene, but her family dentist convinced her that she had the perfect background for pursuing a doctor of dental surgery degree.

Sinkford received her bachelor of science degree from Howard University in 1953 and her doctorate in dental surgery from the Howard University College of Dentistry in 1958, graduating first in her class. She stayed at Howard University and taught crown and bridge prosthodontics for two years before undertaking graduate study at Northwestern University in Chicago. Sinkford received the Louise C. Ball Graduate Fellowship Fund for Graduate Study in Dentistry, which supported her postdoctoral studies at Northwestern University. After her husband completed his military service in 1960, they moved to Chicago so she could begin her studies.

Sinkford was seeking a good basic science foundation and wanted to correlate scientific and clinical research. She studied under Stanley C. Harris at Northwestern’s dental school and completed a master of science degree in 1962 and a Ph.D. in physiology in 1963. Sinkford taught for one year at Northwestern while her husband was studying at the University of Chicago.

When Sinkford entered dental school, only 1.2 percent of dental students in the United States were women. However, in the 1970s, more funds became available for all students, including women, and admission practices were liberalized. In an October 21, 1982, Atlanta Daily World article, Sinkford noted with pride that Howard University graduated a woman, Mary Wooten, in the dental school’s first class in 1888: “Howard has traditionally been one of the few U.S. dental schools to admit women on an equal basis as men.”

Entered Nontraditional Profession

At the time of Sinkford’s 1958 graduation, women made up 2 percent of dentists nationwide. Only five of her 50 classmates were women. Women were discouraged from dentistry and some faculty had prejudices against female students. Yet Sinkford was accepted by the male students because not only was she an excellent student, she was a leader as well and was elected class president.

In the 1976 publication Profiles in Black: Biographical Sketches of 100 Living Black Unsung Heroes, Sinkford recommended dentistry as a career for young women “without reservation because it affords a very useful, purposeful existence.” Sinkford has actively recruited women and minorities to the profession. “Dr. Sinkford has been quite an inspiration,” Renee McCoyCollins, the first woman graduate from Howard’s oral surgery program, emphasized in the Atlanta Daily World article. “The dean has been a perfect example of women’s ability in dentistry.”

Sinkford returned to Howard University in 1964 as chair of prosthodontics, the College of Dentistry’s largest department. She was the first woman head of such a department in the country. Russell Dixon, dean of the College of Dentistry for 35 years, brought her into administration because of the leadership abilities he had seen in her. Sinkford moved from department chair to serve as associate dean from 1967 to 1974, with Dean Joseph L. Henry. At one time, Sinkford had a private practice in the evenings but gave it up to devote more time to her teaching career.

On August 24, 1972, Sinkford was named to a nine-member panel to study a U.S. Public Health Service experiment that began in 1932. In this experiment, 400 African American men with syphilis went without medical aid for 40 years in order to determine the effects of the disease on the human body. Known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the panel had 90 days to report its findings and make recommendations. Sinkford has served on numerous other review boards and has frequently answered the community’s call for her expertise and commitment.

Sinkford was inducted into the International College of Dentists on November 9, 1974, at the Shoreham-Americana Hotel in Washington, D.C. She was the first African American woman dentist inducted into the U.S.A. section of the college. She was also the first woman dentist inducted in Region IV, which includes Washington, D.C, Maryland, Delaware, Puerto Rico, and the Armed Services. At the time of her induction, Sinkford was on sabbatical leave pursuing a special program in pedodontics at Children’s Hospital National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where she worked on a patient-oriented treatment philosophy for the adolescent-age patient.

First Female Dental School Dean

On July 1, 1975, the International Year of the Woman, Jeanne Sinkford was appointed dean of Howard University’s College of Dentistry. Sinkford was the first woman to be appointed dean of any dental school in the nation. In a 1986 videotaped interview, Chronicles of Outstanding Leaders in Dentistry: A Conversation with Jeanne Sinkford, the doctor remarked, “If I had to work for the dean, I might as well be the dean.” When questioned about reactions to her gender in the same interview, Sinkford stated, “I tried very hard … to make opportunities available to males and females. I have not tried to promote women perse.I tried to promote talent … whenever the individual has talent, move forward. I tried to keep mainstream our objectives and our goals. And I am a tough administrator. I don’t waste money, and I don’t fool around. It’s a no nonsense thing, and I think individuals have grown to respect this.”

The Washington, D.C. Democratic Women’s Club honored Sinkford at an annual benefit fund-raiser dinner dance on January 19, 1979. Sinkford, in an April 1968 Ebony article, stated, “It takes a lot for a woman to be in a top position, particularly in a male profession. You have to be better to be accepted as equal. Once your colleagues accept you as a competent person, they don’t mind your being there. But men are resentful at first because they feel a woman has been selected for a position they might have taken.”

Sinkford served 16 years as dean at Howard University and, in addition to her work on numerous university committees, she has served on several national and international committees. She has also been active in many professional and scientific societies and has received several honors and awards. Sinkford believes that dentistry must continue to evolve into a profession that includes education, research, and service as inseparable, essential components. Since July 1, 1991, she had been professor and dean emeritus of the Howard University College of Dentistry. She has since turned her attention to the needs of a growing segment of the population—geriatric dental patients. On November 4, 1991, she became director of the Office of Women and Minority Affairs, American Association of Dental Schools, Washington, D.C.

Sinkford has written a manual for fixed prosthodontics for undergraduate students. Her most significant contribution to dental education has been the nationally acclaimed background document for the Graduate Education Workshop, cosponsored by the American Dental Association and the American Association of Dental Schools. She is a contributing author to Profile of the Negro in American Dentistry, edited by Foster Kidd, and has written scores of professional articles.

Sinkford shared these thoughts in Legacy, the Dental Profession : “History has taught us that the great leaders of the world stirred the consciousness of men and thereby created monumental changes that the world would come to respect and to revere. I have been called a ‘black pioneer’ [and] a ‘renaissance woman’… for I have given many years of my life in dedication to the cause that social, cultural, and educational inequities in our society can be overcome by forceful leadership and constant support for equal opportunity and civil liberty.”

Sinkford’s husband, a pediatric cardiologist, is the chief of pediatrics at D.C. General Hospital and professor of pediatrics at Howard University’s College of Medicine. Jeanne Sinkford understood early on that she had to be organized and have support from her family to manage her work. She is active in Jack and Jill of America and with her children’s activities. While she had to assume the responsibility for family and home life, Sinkford believes that a husband and wife must agree upon their goals. An active professional, parent, and spouse, Sinkford often worked 14-hour days. She acknowledged that it is not a lifestyle for everybody. Along with strong parental role models and professional mentors, Sinkford credits her husband for being very supportive and understanding, particularly about her time constraints. She has been able to have a successful marriage and a successful career.

Jeanne C. Sinkford combines her intellect and her humility in leading a dynamic life committed to her profession, community and society, her beliefs and ambitions, her family and friends. She does no less than her best effort at every turn. She concluded in Legacy, the Dental Profession,“I believe in one supreme being, God, and I believe that man has been given free will which enables him to control his destiny. Life and death continue to be mysteries to us, for in the human life span, we occupy but a grain of sand on the beach of eternity. We are here but for a short period of time and the legacy that we leave must serve as a catalyst for the leaders of the future. We are very small particles but we are a part of the divine power of the universe. We will live again, for energy is neither created nor destroyed.”

Sources

Books

Funnye, Doris Innis, and Juliana Wu, eds., Profiles in Black: Biographical Sketches of 100 Living Black Unsung Heroes, CORE Publications, 1976.

Kidd, Foster, ed., The Profile of the Negro in American Dentistry, Howard University Press, 1979.

Legacy, the Dental Profession: The Philosophies and Thoughts of Selected Dental Leaders Worldwide, compiled by Clifford F. Loader and Shigeo Ryan Kishi, Loader/Kisher, 1990.

Periodicals

Atlanta Daily World, October 21, 1982.

Ebony, April 1968, pp. 103-108.

Journal of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, July 1977, pp. 2-9. Journal of the National Medical Association, July 1975, pp. 326-327; January 1976, pp. 60-62; June 1981, pp. 511-515; February 1987, pp. 227-231; May 1990, pp. 353-358.

Other

Additional information for this profile was obtained from Chronicles ofOutstanding Leaders in Dentistry: A Conversation with Jeanne Sinkford (videocassette), International College of Dentists, U.S.A. Section, 1986 and an unpublished letter to Jessie Carney Smith, January 26, 1995.

—Kathleen E. Bethel