Advancing meaningful progress is an ever-important goal for all of us in ADEA and the entire health professions education community. It’s our collaborative spirit within and emanating from ADEA that drives our success as we strive to improve our processes, programs and professions.

ADEA’s engagement with a wide range of partners across the health professions is an approach that serves us well and informs and inspires others. Collaboration is what fuels ADEA’s greatest successes—from the growing interaction among our seven ADEA Councils toward achieving association goals; to the groundbreaking partnership between the ADEA Commission on Change and Innovation (CCI) and the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA); to the rapid growth of the ADEA-led Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC), with membership rising from 6 to 20 national associations in just eight years.

Our collaborative spirit has the power to move ADEA forward to new horizons and to create new possibilities such as:

• Achieving licensure reform and portability.
• Preparing next-generation providers for their roles in emerging multidisciplinary health care teams.
• Advancing the international dialogue around dental education and oral health through increased global engagement.
• Continuing our efforts, through ADEA and the ADEAGies Foundation®, to grow the pipeline of highly qualified dental faculty ready to educate the future workforce.

By spotlighting ADEA’s emphasis on collaboration, we celebrate each ADEA member. Attend the 2019 ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition, and tell your story of collaboration, whether it is within your school or program, across campuses and universities, with industry or governmental partners, or on an international scale.

Join our 2019 Celebration in Chicago. The future of dental education is ours to define. It is a time of great promise, optimism and hope. Let’s gather in the “Windy City”—hailed as “the next big place for innovation”—to celebrate our unique abilities and spirit in ways that advance our profession, better prepare our students and embrace our role in our global community.