Faculty Development, Leadership, and Wellness: Proceedings of the 2025 ADEA Advanced Dental Education Summit

ABSTRACT

The ADEA Council on Advanced Education Programs convened its sixth biennial Advanced Dental Education Summit, which centered on the theme of “Faculty Development, Leadership, and Wellness.” The programming examined key areas related to faculty wellness, specifically addressing the role of kindness, the delivery of effective feedback, the application of empathy, and the utility of the ADEA data portal. Invited experts explored the intersection of these themes with faculty well‐being and the development of effective academic leadership.

1. Introduction

The 2025 ADEA Advanced Dental Education Summit is the sixth biennial meeting organized by the ADEA Council of Advanced Education Programs (ADEA COAEP). The theme of the meeting was “Faculty development, leadership, and wellness.” The summit's objective was to discuss best practices related to faculty development, cultivating effective leadership, and prioritizing wellness among both residents and faculty, while highlighting emerging issues in advanced dental education. Thought‐provoking presentations from subject‐matter experts examined multiple dimensions of the resident and faculty lifecycle. Distinguished speakers highlighted best practices, including the integration of kindness curricula to support sustainable education, the strategic use of feedback as a leadership tool, effective utilization of ADEA data resources, and the incorporation of empathy‐focused initiatives into practice.

2. Keynote: The Kindness Curriculum: A New Model for Sustainable Dental Education

Glenn Canares, DDS, MSD, also known as “The Kind Professor,” opened the summit with his keynote address titled “The Kindness Curriculum: A New Model for Sustainable Dental Education.” Dr. Canares, a self‐identified “Recovering Nice Guy,” is a distinguished pediatric dentist, educator, and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, where he also serves as the Program Director for the Pediatric Dentistry residency program. He is widely recognized as a passionate advocate for wellness, psychological safety, and compassionate leadership, actively challenging traditional, high‐pressure models of health science education.

His keynote, proposes a revolutionary approach to training the next generation of dental professionals to thrive, both clinically and emotionally, in a demanding healthcare environment. Drawing on his own experiences as a clinician and the son of immigrants, Dr. Canares champions the intentional fostering of a “Culture of Kindness” that distinguishes genuine, outwardly directed kindness from merely being “nice.” Dr. Canares explains that being “nice” is prioritizing agreement over necessary conflict, and instead you must choose to be “kind,” a deliberate practice that fosters resident resilience.

3. The Four Pillars of Kindness

Dr. Canares introduced the four pillars of kindness: (1) Feedback: prioritize connection before instruction; (2) Environment: cultivate psychological safety to mitigate burnout; (3) Behavior: model self‐care practices; and (4) Leadership: share personal stories to inspire engagement and followship. To deliver consistent and kind feedback, Dr. Canares recommended a structured approach: (1) Listen actively, (2) describe observations, (3) articulate your reasoning, and (4) propose a skills‐based development plan.

The session explored how adopting kindness‐based educational strategies, coupled with effective, constructive feedback, and the cultivation of psychological safety, can build resilience and promote sustainable learning. Summit participants gained practical communication skills and identified actionable strategies to refine their supervisory and teaching approaches, enabling students and residents to reach their full potential. Dr. Canares’ educational philosophy is perfectly summarized by the wisdom of Maya Angelou: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

4. Leading Through Effective Feedback

Christene Render spoke to attendees about “Leading Through Effective Feedback.” She is well‐positioned to lead this discussion, drawing on more than 20 years of experience in human resources and leadership roles across both large corporations and smaller organizations. She is known for her collaborative, human‐centered approach, in which she “seeks to understand first, before giving feedback and making recommendations.” Her presentation incorporated group exercises designed to help participants more fully engage with her philosophy of leveraging feedback as a tool for leadership development and for cultivating more intentional and effective leaders. She emphasized the importance of deep listening and trust‐building, advocating for feedback that moves beyond judgment to become genuinely constructive in nature. Through the group exercises, participants learned that feedback is most effective when grounded in thoughtful listening and understanding. Effective feedback should be structured, tied to clear goals, and focused on specific behaviors or situations that may need correction. It should be delivered in a supportive environment that clarifies the impact of actions on others or on the organization. Finally, feedback should invite a response from the receiver, as the best solutions are collaborative and reflect a shared commitment to everyone's success.

5. ADEA Data Portal: ADEA Members‐Only Tool for Insights Into Dental Education

Emilia Istrate, PhD, MAIS, CAE, is the ADEA senior vice president of policy and education research. Dr. Istrate presented on the new ADEA data portal, a series of interactive dashboards that allow ADEA members to access data and trends in dental education programs in the United States and Canada. Dr. Istrate showed two dashboards that were developed together with a workgroup appointed by ADEA COAEP.

The first dashboard showed an overview of advanced education programs. On a single dashboard, ADEA members can access maps, charts, and tables with advanced dental education data by state, program type, institution type (college, dental school, hospital, military, Veterans Affairs, other government) and year. Data about total enrollment, first year enrollment, graduates, tuition and fees and net cost/payments were also available. This information was based on decades of data collected by the American Dental Association (ADA) on behalf of the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA).

The second dashboard compared self‐reported preparedness to practice dentistry by graduating predoctoral students who applied to an advanced education program to those who did not. This dashboard presented information relative to the students' perceived clinical experience during dental school, confidence in clinical skills, confidence in other skills and preparedness to practice statements based on CODA standards. The data were drawn from responses to the ADEA Survey of Dental School Seniors collected over the past 5 years. ADEA members can view trends across all schools, by US Census region, by type of school (public/private), and by year.

Information from these dashboards is organized in a user‐friendly format. Dr. Istrate demonstrated how COAEP members can utilize these tools to address training needs of students in advanced education programs.

6. The Empathy Project

Margaret Mason, DMD, MA, is the vice president and senior administrator of dental medicine at family health centers at NYU Langone, presented a session on “The Empathy Project.” The Empathy Project utilizes Denise the Empathy Elephant as a core symbol and educational guide to promote empathy as a necessary skill for everyone in the healthcare system, including clinicians, students, staff, and patients. Denise is at the heart of the project's mission to foster empathy as a fundamental value, helping people understand the importance of truly “showing up” with compassion in their interactions. Through this mascot, the Empathy Project aims to train healthcare providers to be patient‐centered in their practice while simultaneously empowering patients to become more effective and active participants in their own care journey. Dr. Mason's session touched on themes such as biases held by both providers and patients and how awareness of these, along with the value of showing up with empathy can make us better providers, and human beings. Through Denise, Dr. Mason guided an interactive session with the participants on their experiences—professional, and some personal ones—and how these tied directly into the themes and message of The Empathy Project. The participants also engaged in discussion of how subtle preconceptions can impact patient care and how conscious empathy can be used as a powerful tool for self‐correction and better outcomes.

7. Summary and Action Items

• 1. Implement a “Kindness Curriculum” and psychological safety
• 2. Standardize and humanize feedback delivery
• 3. Leverage the ADEA Data Portal for program enhancement
• 4. Integrate empathy training to combat clinical bias

Funding

The authors have nothing to report.

Ethics Statement

The authors have nothing to report.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The authors have nothing to report.