Celebrating Leadership

With the 2002 holiday season upon us and with a new year quickly approaching, it is a particularly appropriate time to salute the leadership that is so important to achieving the mission of the dental profession.

From our experience, colleagues who have not actively participated are not always fully informed about the contributions of those who serve. In fact, some have been inclined to refer to the service process that dental leadership engages in as "dental politics." Such a label does not fairly describe the importance of the contributions and the sacrifices often made by volunteers. For that reason, we would like to share some recent examples.

During the past few years in particular, the California Dental Association has received exceptional contributions from those elected to lead. This has been a time when the position of the association’s executive administrative officer has often been in a state of flux. This reality has required an increased level of commitment from volunteer leadership that is unprecedented in our many years of watching leadership in action. It has also come at a time when the dentist business owner has been confronted with many more requirements and regulations that necessitate much more time if a practice is to successfully meet the demands of an increasingly competitive dental marketplace.

Our purpose is not to describe all, or even a significant part, of these contributions; nor do we want to slight any of the other important contributions made by outstanding leaders during the several decades of our observations. Our purpose is only to highlight a few notable accomplishments that have been publicly recognized at American Dental Association and California Dental Association annual meetings in the past two months.

Dr. Eugene Sekiguchi, CDA president in 1997, was the first to demonstrate a new level of commitment when he served as interim executive director after completing his term as CDA’s highest elected officer in late 1997. Commuting from his home in Southern California to Sacramento on a weekly basis to oversee the operation of a 15,000+ membership organization brought significant sacrifice. It required that he spend considerable time away from family and an active dental practice.

Subsequently, in late 1998, Gene turned to serving the American Dental Association as trustee from the 13th District (California). Last October, he announced his intention to seek the office of ADA president-elect. Because of his outstanding record of service to his profession, Gene Sekiguchi received strong support from his leadership colleagues in California, component dental societies, and ethnic dental organizations within the state, and his friends.

His accomplishments, his leadership abilities, and his commitment to his profession were successfully communicated to the 410-member ADA House of Delegates. As has been previously reported elsewhere, Dr. Gene Sekiguchi was elected to the American Dental Association’s highest office and will serve as president in 2003-2004. Dentistry throughout the country will continue to be the beneficiary of Gene’s untiring efforts on behalf of his profession. As an ADA trustee, he has already made important contributions in such divergent policy areas as dental information technology and dental office wastewater. It is important that we honor his achievements at this time and wish him well as he challenges the extremely time-intensive activities of the American Dental Associations two highest offices.

The presidents of the California Dental Association have been extremely effective in helping to focus the efforts of staff and leadership at times when staff administrative leadership was not effective. Ken Lange, Gene Welling, Kent Farnsworth, Jack Broussard, and Steve Chan and their respective teams have been very responsive during these very difficult times.

The last three volunteer administrations in particular have dealt with not only the tiresome issues of the day such as dental unit waterlines, amalgam, and wastewater, but also progressive new association initiatives such as the California Dental Association Foundation and the development and implementation of a comprehensive strategic plan.

The year 2002 has been particularly remarkable as Dr. Steve Chan’s administrative year has been confronted by outside legal activity challenging the dental profession in the state over the safety of amalgam and peer review. Steve and his immediate predecessors effectively balanced the demands placed on them by the above challenges and, in addition, organized ADA officer campaigns. Finally, Steve Chan provided extremely effective leadership during the time when administrative change became an important association matter.

The year 2003 is rapidly approaching and is filled with challenges for new President Dennis Kalebjian, who has already been a major participant in the management of the activities previously described. In addition, Dr. Kalebjian chairs the search committee for a new executive director, an activity that should become one of the most important for this association, not only for 2003, but also potentially for many years to come.

Traditionally, contributions of the leadership are shared and acknowledged each fall before the somewhat limited audiences of the CDA and ADA Houses of Delegates.

Because we believe these contributions and accomplishments are so important to the profession, our purpose here was to share and celebrate them with the larger segment of the membership that makes up the readership of this publication.