2021 marked the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, an unparalleled challenge to dental schools and allied and advanced dental education programs. During these fast-changing times, ADEA fought for additional federal resources for its Member Institutions, hosted numerous virtual events to ensure the best minds in dental education could still connect and share their expertise, published a series of papers about innovations in academic dentistry, released crucial research and reports and raised its voice in support of greater diversity and inclusion in our community. At the same time, ADEA kicked off a monumental climate study of diversity, equity and inclusion at U.S. and Canadian dental schools and allied dental education programs.
Leadership
Leadership—Provide leadership on issues impacting dental education and the health of the public.
Rising to Today's Challenges
ADEA Strategic Framework Overview
ADEA is proud to report significant and ongoing progress in its 2019-2022 ADEA Strategic Framework. The Strategic Framework provides the scaffolding within which the organization operates, while affording the flexibility needed for the organization to adapt to the changing context for its work. The framework represents a continuous strategy process to set goals and objectives, define outcomes (both annual and long-term), implement our strategies and assess and measure success.
For fiscal year (FY) 2021, 28 outcomes with 66 key performance indicators bolstered the four goals and enabled environment elements of the plan. We met or were on track with 80% of our key performance indicators. Twenty percent were off track or behind schedule, many due to external forces—for example, COVID-19 prevented the hosting of a GoDental event. Notably, none of the FY2021 key performance indicators were deferred or outright dropped.
Many of our FY2021 Strategic Framework successes are captured in this report. In addition, we did the following:
- Created a repository of COVID-19 materials;
- Hosted the initial health equity webinar on cultural competence and structural competence;
- Met membership targets for the allied and advanced programs in the face of a challenging environment;
- Completed data gathering related to dental workforce grants, such as Health Resources Services Administration, and research grants, such as National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research;
- Launched the ADEA staff Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee; and
- Met all of our targets for the ADEA eLearn resources.
The FY2021 Strategic Framework outcomes and key performance indicators were bold and expansive. Even in the face of a fluid environment impacted by the pandemic and other factors, ADEA achieved the vast majority of them. It also is worth noting that a number of the outcomes and key performance indicators are multiyear, and we remain on track to accomplish them.
ADEA Meets With HRSA to Discuss COVID Provider Relief Fund
On April 28, 2021, ADEA and representatives from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) met to discuss a problem with how monies are disbursed by the COVID Provider Relief Fund. The problem stems from the fact that HRSA has used the Tax Identification Number (TIN) as the sole identifier for eligibility for payments, but dental schools and academic medical centers share a TIN. That fact has resulted in dental schools sometimes being declared ineligible for payments because they share a TIN with the parent university and academic medical center.
Specifically, hospitals, including academic medical centers, received reimbursement early in the pandemic and it appears to the fund’s payment system that reimbursement was already made. As a result, the dental school is declared ineligible, even though the dental school data was not previously submitted.
The meeting was led by HRSA Chief of Staff Jordan Grossman and was the result of a letter sent by Karen West, D.M.D., M.P.H., ADEA President and CEO, to President Biden in late January 2021 explaining the problem to the new administration.
At the meeting, Dr. West; ADEA Senior Scholars in Residence Marsha Pyle, D.D.S., M.Ed., and Denice Stewart, D.D.S., M.P.H.A.; ADEA Chief of Staff and Acting Chief Policy Officer Jason Lee, J.D.; and ADEA Advocacy and Government Relations staff provided HRSA with a complete understanding of how dental school finances work, why they are not part of the academic medical center, how the dental school’s revenue loss data was not submitted by the medical center and the steps that could be taken to correct the TIN problem.
The meeting ended with a request from HRSA to provide information on how dental schools use the TIN to provide information to the Internal Revenue Service. They are interested in whether it is submitted by the individual dental school or through the larger institution.
ADEA provided the requested information in May 2021, and subsequently shared additional information about U.S. dental schools with the agency. In the fall of 2021, HRSA was able to resolve the issues and to make dental schools able to apply through the program portal for reimbursement. Schools were able to begin applying.
ADEA Offers 2021 ADEA Virtual Capitol Hill Day
On April 28, 2021, ADEA held its 2021 ADEA Virtual Capitol Hill Day where ADEA members meet with their Members of Congress to advocate for funding for programs important to dental education. At the time, ADEA requested that Congress provide $46 million for the Oral Health Training Program at the Health Resources and Services Administration, with a set aside of $14 million each for residencies in General Dentistry and Pediatric Dentistry and $520 million for the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). The Congress has not completed work on the fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget and the House version increases the set aside for residencies as requested, but only provides $42.7 million overall. The Senate bill continues the program at the FY 2021 level of $40.7 million and $12 million each for the residency programs. For NIDCR, the two bills provide $519 million and $515.7 million, respectively. These differences will have to be resolved before the final legislation is enacted.
In addition, ADEA included information asking Congress to take steps to ensure that the Department of Education (ED) loan servicers properly inform graduates about the requirements of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program so graduates can select a qualifying repayment plan. In October 2021, ED announced a temporary waiver for potential beneficiaries of the PSLF Program. For a limited time, ED will allow borrowers to receive credit toward loan forgiveness under the PSLF Program for loan payments that otherwise would not qualify toward the number of payments needed to earn forgiveness. In many cases, the loan payments did not qualify because the borrower was enrolled in the wrong repayment plan. The temporary waiver period ends on Oct. 31, 2022.
High-Level ADEA Staff Promotions
In 2021, Carolyn Booker, Ph.D., was promoted to ADEA Chief of Educational Pathways.
In her new role, Dr. Booker focuses on implementing a strategic recruitment plan to enhance the applicant pool to ADEA Centralized Application Services (CAS) and an expanded focus on addressing student debt. She will continue to provide leadership for ADEA’s CASs, which includes ADEA AADSAS® (ADEA Associated American Dental Schools Application Service), ADEA CAAPID® (ADEA Centralized Application for Advanced Placement for International Dentists), ADEA DHCAS® (ADEA Dental Hygiene Centralized Application Service) and ADEA PASS® (ADEA Postdoctoral Application Support Service). She will also provide leadership for programming and resources for applicants, students, health professions advisors, dental school administrators, educators and others involved in the recruitment, admission and retention of students at all levels of dental education. Dr. Booker is responsible for maximizing the operational performance of ADEA’s CASs and assures programming and initiatives are aligned to ADEA’s strategic directions. In her new position, Dr. Booker reports directly to Dr. Karen P. West, ADEA President and CEO.
In 2013, Dr. Booker came to ADEA as the Senior Vice President of Educational Pathways where she has served for more than eight years. Prior to ADEA, Dr. Booker served as an Associate Dean for Students and Faculty Administrative Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Dentistry as the Director of Students and Counseling Services. She obtained her doctorate from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and both her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from South Carolina State University.
Krisa Haggins, M.B.A., CMP, CEM, was promoted to Chief of Meetings, Conferences and Educational Technology (MCET). In her new position, Ms. Haggins will provide continued leadership of the strategy, planning and execution to ensure ADEA’s meetings, conferences and learning events are of the highest quality and provide superior experiences for ADEA members. Upon joining ADEA, Ms. Haggins introduced the client consultation model and other operational efficiencies to the department. MCET works collaboratively with staff and external constituencies in support of their educational programming, including meeting conceptualization and design, budget and fiscal oversight, logistics, virtual event design, contract negotiations, speaker engagement, and onsite management and production. In her new position, Ms. Haggins reports to Jason Lee, J.D., Chief of Staff.
Ms. Haggins joined ADEA in 2016 as Senior Vice President of MCET. Previously, she held a variety of roles in events and television production, including Vice-President of External Affairs and Interim President and CEO at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation; Assistant Director, Exposition at the American College of Cardiology; Assistant Director, Meetings and Events at Public Broadcasting Service; and Associate Producer, Maryland Public Television, where she won an Emmy Award for public affairs programming. Ms. Haggins has a B.S. in Communications and is a graduate of Loyola College’s Executive M.B.A. program. She holds certifications in meeting planning (CMP) and exhibition management (CEM).
Audra Johnson, M.T.A., CMP, CAE, was promoted to the position of Vice President of Meetings, Conferences and Educational Technology. The position is a new level added to the ADEA organizational chart to enhance opportunities for staff career advancement.
Ms. Johnson has accomplished great things as Senior Director of Meetings at ADEA. During the last few years, she has played a key role during ADEA’s transition from in-person to virtual events. She has significantly reduced ADEA’s expenses from cancelled and shifted events and has cultivated important vendor relationships. In her new role, Ms. Johnson will continue to dedicate her expertise to improve ADEA events and steward associated budgets, among other responsibilities.
In addition to holding a master’s degree in Tourism Administration, Ms. Johnson holds Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) and Certified Association Executive designations. She is a 2013-1015 ASAE Diversity Executive Leadership Program Scholar. More recently she obtained the Virtual Event Meeting Management certificate. Ms. Johnson brings more than 20 years of events experience with more than a decade of that time at ADEA.
Also, Rebecca Stolberg, RDH., M.S.D.H., was promoted to the position of ADEA Vice President of Allied Dental Education and Faculty Development. In her role, Ms. Stolberg represents the allied dental professions in all ADEA endeavors and works collaboratively with ADEA members and the Office of Learning staff to lead planning, implementation and evaluation of key ADEA professional development programs for the allied community, including dental hygiene, dental assisting and dental lab technology. She has been an active Access, Diversity and Inclusion advocate and has helped the ADEA Council of Allied Dental Program Directors achieve many of its goals during the past three years. One of her newest activities is a monthly mentoring program for new allied dental program directors.
Ms. Stolberg’s experience in the field of dental education spans more than 24 years. She first joined the ADEA staff in July 2018 as Senior Director of Allied Dental Education and Faculty Development. Prior to coming to work at ADEA, Ms. Stolberg held many roles in academia including professor, program director, department chair, assistant dean and associate dean. Her most recent position outside ADEA was as Interim Department Chair of the Department of Public Health and Health Services Administration at Eastern Washington University in Spokane, Wash., where she was also a full professor in the Dental Hygiene Department. She served on many councils, committees and task forces during her years as an ADEA member. Her involvement with ADEA goes back to 1984 when she was a student member in graduate school.
Ms. Stolberg was also an ADEA/Colgate-Palmolive Co. Allied Dental Educator Fellow in 2016. She received her B.S. degree in Dental Hygiene from Eastern Washington University and her M.S. degree in Dental Hygiene Education from the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Dentistry.
Finally, the reporting relationship of the Chief Diversity Officer, Dr. Sonya G. Smith, was changed. As of September 2021, Dr. Smith reports to the ADEA President and CEO.