Mary C. Otto is an independent journalist and AHCJ’s oral health core topic leader. She began writing about oral health at The Washington Post, where she covered social issues including health care and poverty. In 2007, she wrote about Deamonte Driver, a Maryland child covered by Medicaid who died after suffering complications from a dental infection. The death spurred congressional hearings, a revamping of Maryland’s Medicaid dental system and increased attention to oral health access for Medicaid children nationwide. After leaving the Post, Otto spent an academic year studying oral health at Harvard University as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow.