Dear Member or Guest,

Welcome to the American Student Dental Association Website! This site was launched three years ago with the hope that it would expand access to our resources and provide information on everything affecting dental students. Whether you are a guest or a member, our website should give you all you could ever know about ASDA and the issues affecting dental students today.

When the American Dental Association began its legacy of advocacy in 1971, its aim was simply to provide a voice for student dentists where before there was none. Over time, the regulatory bodies’ influence on students has increased and as a result our goals as an organization have grown and become more complex. In response, we now have several publications, along with this website to disseminate information and encourage debate and action on resolutions passed by our annual house of delegates.

This year we will tackle issues like developing a secure and quantitative way to evaluate candidates for specialty programs that does not create an additional expense to national board exams. We will act on the White Paper drafted last year to improve ethics in all areas of our education. Through the implementation of best practices and by looking to our own actions, we will protect the integrity of our future profession. We will develop a task force to increase the involvement at chapters whose success is being hindered not by its membership size, but by the level of activity within the chapter. We will help to increase chapter motivation and success in ASDA programs by creating program templates and making them available to all chapters. We will look to our Legislative Grassroots Network to lobby for bills that will decrease the cost of education, increase access to care, protect our rights to licensure, and address midlevel provider legislation in accordance with policies C-1 and C-2.

The success of the goals we have set forth to achieve does not rest in the action of national leaders. Our success this year will be in the utility of the individual who takes it upon his or herself to motivate their chapter to be active, and to have successful programs and a powerful political voice. The passion of our members has always been our greatest strength. The nearly 17,000 individuals dedicated to the goals of our organization have carried our resolutions to fruition. It is by their persistence and determination that ASDA has become so strong. It is by this persistence and determination that I plan to serve you as president.

I look forward to this great honor, humbled by the actions of our membership in the past, and hopeful our future will be just as successful. I plan to pursue the goals of our Organization with all of the passion that I have for our profession. Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to serve you in this capacity.

Sincerely,

 
Tim Moriarty
President
American Student Dental Association