ASTDD is committed to promoting and helping to support state and territorial dental directors’ pursuit of knowledge and skill to foster excellence in oral health program leadership. ASTDD has a long history of providing informal peer support as well as professional development through an annual meeting for its members. To better meet member’s needs to enhance their programmatic and leadership skills, ASTDD decided in 2001 to formalize its peer mentoring efforts and broaden professional development offerings. With funding from the HRSA cooperative agreement, ASTDD formed a Leadership Development Committee and developed a Leadership Initiative 3-year Plan. In October 2005, the Leadership Committee was reduced in size and met in Arizona to review progress and accomplishments on the 2002-05 Plan and to develop a new 2006-08 Leadership Initiative Plan.
Major areas of focus for ASTDD Leadership efforts continue to be:
Mentoring Program
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New member ASTDD orientation: new members should call the ASTDD Executive Director, Dr. Dean Perkins, at 573-636-0453 to obtain an overview of ASTDD and receive an ASTDD Operations Manual. Every year at the annual meeting in late April/early May there is a new member orientation session followed by the ASTDD business meeting and a member reception. Temporary mentors can be assigned to new members to help plan the best way to network and benefit from the many activities that occur during the annual meeting/National Oral Health Conference.
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New dental directors: includes an overview of the mentoring program, resource materials, how to request a mentor, and comments from dental directors who have been through the mentoring program. The mentoring program is only available to ASTDD state/territorial dental directors.
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Advanced mentoring: this is an opportunity for dental directors who have been in their positions for at least two years to receive mentoring around specific negotiated areas from another current or previous dental director; includes the process and form for requesting advanced mentoring.
National Oral Health Conference: attendees earn continuing dental education credits through a variety of formats, including skill-building workshops, plenary and concurrent sessions, poster and oral presentations, and roundtable discussions.
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Audioconferences and webcasts (create new page): list of upcoming presentations and archived PowerPoint presentations or handouts)
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Special workshops: (create new page): list of workshops sponsored by ASTDD with related PowerPoint presentations or handouts
Leadership Development
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Educational Directory: links to many resources for leadership training or fellowships.
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Leadership 101 Module
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Public Health Leadership Institute Team
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ASTDD Executive Committee Leadership Training: Executive Committee members have participated in Board development sessions via teleconferences and meetings since 2004
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APHA Knutson Awards for Distinguished service in Dental Public Health: The APHA Oral Health Section presents this award each year and the remarks by the recipient are published in the Journal of Public Health Dentistry. Learn about the many heroes and leaders in dental public health! This is a great history lesson.
