Alfred Civilion Fones founded the dental hygiene profession in Bridgeport in the early 1900s, motivated by something he observed in the city’s schoolchildren. He saw a high incidence of dental caries (commonly known as cavities today) in children attending Bridgeport public schools and set out to understand why. His conclusion was both simple and radical: it wasn’t just about cleaning teeth, and it wasn’t just about diet. It was about both, together. It was the fact that untreated dental disease had consequences that extended well beyond the mouth. A child in pain, Fones understood, could not learn.
More than a century later, Meg Zayan arrived at the institution that bears his name.
She came to University of Bridgeport in 1991 to teach at the Fones School of Dental Hygiene, trained as a dental hygienist and in the midst of building the career she set out to pursue. What she found, embedded in the Fones School’s founding philosophy, was the same argument she would spend the next 35 years making: that oral health is public health, and that access to both is a matter of equity.
This past spring, the Connecticut Public Health Association recognized her work with its CEA Winslow Award, the organization’s honor for leadership and achievement in public health practice, research, and education. Zayan, now an associate professor and academic coordinator in UB’s College of Health Sciences, was presented the award at the CPHA Annual Conference at the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford in March.
“My accomplishments in public health and education were validated,” she said of the moment she learned she had received the award. “I was extremely proud because University of Bridgeport is what gave me a lot of what I did to receive this award.”
The CEA Winslow Award is named for Charles-Edward Amory Winslow, the Yale-trained pioneer credited with founding the Yale School of Public Health. Winslow believed the conquest of disease was inseparable from the conquest of poverty and inequity — a philosophy Zayan sees as a direct antecedent to the work she does today. “The overall goal in public health is to eradicate disease,” she said. “And that’s what Winslow believed in. That we need more professionals to be able to exercise this philosophy.”
Her path to those convictions was not a straight line from dental school to the classroom. After completing her dental hygiene certificate at Penn and her bachelor’s degree in dental health education at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Zayan spent time doing field work before earning her Master of Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh. One summer brought her to Colorado, where she worked with the Colorado Migrant Health Department, providing dental health education to migrant farmworkers’ children in Denver. Another took her to Niger, West Africa, where she conducted dental public health work in partnership with CARE International and the U.S. Embassy in Niamey — work she later documented in a published research article.
Back in Connecticut, she rose through the ranks of the Fones School, eventually serving as its director and, for a period, its dean. When UB began developing its master’s of Public Health (MPH) program, she was among the founding faculty who built it. She has been teaching in the MPH program ever since — along with courses at the undergraduate and doctoral levels — while also overseeing the undergraduate Health Sciences internship program.
What drew her to the classroom over clinical practice, she said, was the reach. “I wanted to be able to spread the word and provide my expertise to a larger number of people,” she said. “The motivation that students have to want to learn more — the ability to feed on their interest and their passion — that’s what really attracted me to public health education.”
For Nadine Spring, MPH, Ph.D., the colleague who nominated Zayan for the award and serves as associate director of UB’s Public Health program, the recognition reflects what students have understood for years. “Professor Zayan has always been instrumental to our MPH students’ success,” Spring said. “Students not currently enrolled in her courses often reach out to her for guidance on their papers, including their MPH capstone. She has been intentional about ensuring that students feel supported and equipped to succeed.”
Zayan’s commitment to practice extends beyond the classroom. For approximately 15 years, she has served on the board of directors of Southwest Community Health Center in Bridgeport, a federally qualified health center serving the city’s most vulnerable residents. She chairs the board’s Quality Improvement Committee.
It was the COVID-19 pandemic, though, that she described as a clarifying moment — for her students as much as for herself.
“Everything that I was able to teach in theory to students, we were now living it,” she said. “Students were able to associate what they were learning with what they were actually living and hearing on the news and seeing all around them. It just allowed the light bulbs to go off in their minds. This is what it’s all about. That feeling of advocacy, that feeling of prevention, and the feeling of needing resources to reduce disease.”
She described students finally grasping why handwashing signs hang in restaurant bathrooms, why six-foot distance became policy, and why public health infrastructure exists in the first place. “It wasn’t just Professor Meg who was saying these things,” she said. “They were living this. And people were able to identify what public health is and the need for it.”
Looking ahead, Zayan said her focus remains on the students in front of her and on what she sees in them. “I have complete confidence in them,” she said of today’s generation. “They’re going to see things from a practical point of view. They’re going to see things from a goal-oriented point of view. They’re going to understand how today’s actions are going to direct the outcomes.”
Meg Zayan, Ed.D., MPH, RDH, is an associate professor and academic coordinator in the College of Health Sciences at University of Bridgeport. She has been a member of the UB community for 35 years.
With over 14 years of experience in writing and communications, Abby Levandoski is a seasoned storyteller specializing in highlighting stories that build community. As the assistant director of communications and content strategy for University of Bridgeport, Abby produces compelling narratives highlighting academic programs, research initiatives, and student success. Her work has earned positive media coverage across print, digital, and TV platforms. Abby holds a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s degree in political science, bringing a strategic and creative approach to her role in higher education marketing and communications.