Make the world smile, together.
About Ida Society
In 1867, a child named Ida Gray was born into a world that told her she could not exist—not as a Black woman, not as a scholar, certainly not as a doctor. Orphaned in infancy, raised by an aunt who could neither read nor write, she worked as a seamstress in Cincinnati while attending segregated schools. Yet in the dental office of Dr. Jonathan Taft, she found something extraordinary: a mentor who saw not her limitations, but her possibilities.
Jonathan Taft was dean of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, later the first dean of the University of Michigan's dental school, and eventually president of the American Dental Association. He was also a radical—a man who believed that women belonged in dentistry when the world disagreed. When Ida Gray showed interest and aptitude, he didn't see her race or gender as barriers. He saw a future dentist. For three years, she learned in his office. In 1887, she passed the entrance examinations to Michigan's dental school. In 1890, she graduated as the first African American woman dentist in the United States.
Her name was Ida Gray. We named our organization in her honor, not just for her historic achievement, but for what she represents: the power of one person believing in another's potential to heal.
About Hyewon L.
Growing up as the only English-speaking child in a struggling immigrant family, I watched illness steal our simple joys—birthday celebrations and picnics vanishing into the shadows of chronic disease. This intimate dance with suffering as a poor minority child planted the seeds of my calling.
As the first in my family to complete college, health equity became my north star. As a pediatric dentist, I'm drawn to empowering women and children to embrace life's fullness.
When both Desmond Tutu and my beloved mother returned to their eternal home on that same December day, I felt a gentle nudge from the universe. From this tender convergence, Ida Society was born—creating ripples of transformation among women and children everywhere.