In 1989, Dr. Valli Meeks became the leader of a new dental clinic for people living with HIV or AIDS. It was the first of its kind in Maryland, and she became an advocate for her patients, working with them and other medical professionals to ensure care.
Meeks retired in 2023 and the University of Maryland School of Dentistry’s PLUS Clinic continues its mission today.
Meeks told her husband, playwright Clyde Santana, about her work and he felt the story needed to be told.
That became the musical “Dr. Smile,” which opens May 15 at Zeiders American Dream Theater in Virginia Beach and runs through May 30. Santana, Meeks and Kira Sarai Helper wrote the book; Santana and Helper wrote the lyrics while Helper wrote the music. Sharon Cook directs.
WHRO’s John Doucette spoke with Meeks about her work and advocacy becoming a musical and why the play needed to tell the story of her patients.
They also spoke about her work to strengthen healthcare in Rwanda.
This has been edited for length and clarity.
JOHN DOUCETTE: Thank you for speaking with us.
VALLI MEEKS: Mm-hm. Sure.
DOUCETTE: You were a young medical professional who had recently graduated, and you started volunteering.
MEEKS: I came back to the dental school to volunteer, and it just so happened the director of the clinics had identified that there was a cohort of patients in Baltimore City who were living with HIV disease and needed dental care, but could not afford it or were uninsured or underinsured. … In the beginning, we were probably doing more providing urgent care or emergent care and then as the clinic progressed, we were really able to provide sustainable treatment, planning and care.
DOUCETTE: You were seeing a range of patients, not just men.
MEEKS: In the beginning, we saw mostly men, but as it caught on, we saw more women.
DOUCETTE: Why was it important to have a specific clinic?
MEEKS: It was mainly because we were the gatekeepers for the funding to make sure that it went to the patients.
DOUCETTE: HIV and AIDS have changed in these decades.
MEEKS: Yes, it’s changed, and I really feel privileged, glad that I’ve been a part of that change. When the clinic started in 1989, the patients already had AIDS or were AIDS patients. It was to be diagnosed HIV positive back in ’89, and even before then, considered a death sentence.
DOUCETTE: I wanted to ask about the work that you’ve done overseas. You’ve done work with nonprofits based in Rwanda and helped establish, I believe, a degree program there.
MEEKS: The country started a program called Human Resources for Health. The minister of health at that time started this program, and what it was to bring their health care system back to the standards since the genocide. During the genocide, there was a diaspora. They lost a lot of their health care providers.
So this was to increase their oral health, their health care providers, and it involved 19 universities in the U.S. It included nursing, medicine, dentistry, healthcare management, neurology and OBGYN. There were doctors, physicians and dentists from the United States.
DOUCETTE: Why are you drawn to this kind of care?
MEEKS: It finds me.
DOUCETTE: You helped write the book for this play.
MEEKS: My husband, unbeknownst to me, as I was giving him an oral history of what I do, was writing all this down and developing it. I would tell him, I said, ‘This is not just me. I had a lot of help.’ It evolved to ‘Dr. Smile.’
DOUCETTE: What do you think of that?
MEEKS: It’s scary. It’s surreal. … Three of my favorite patients, it’s their story also. It’s my three angels, Jon Eikenberg, Jim Koepke, Carlton Smith and the LGBTQ community that really fought to get care, medical care, dental care, social services to people So there were so many advocates that really worked and strived to make the people aware, make the world aware, make the government aware of people living with HIV disease and how insurance, medical care, the changes of research can help and it has. It’s turned it into a chronic disease now.
DOUCETTE: What do you want people to take away from the play?
MEEKS: We all need to work together, and by working together, we can progress. HIV doesn’t say, ‘I’m going to choose the man. I’m going to choose a woman.’ It doesn't discriminate.
DOUCETTE: Will it be strange to see this thing open?
MEEKS: Very strange. I still can’t watch rehearsals without crying and I’m hoping I’m not a ball of tears on opening night. I hope maybe by the last show I’ll be able to sit through it without grabbing a box of tissues.
