ADAF seeks candidates for 2009 Hillenbrand Fellowship
At first look, the ADA Hillenbrand Fellowship is just a 12-month internship at ADA Headquarters, but it can make a lifetime of difference to the chosen dentist.
“Anyone interested in broadening his or her horizons concerning the way oral health care is delivered in America should apply,” said 2007 Fellow Quinn Dufurrena, now executive director of the Idaho State Dental Association.
“It’s made for people who have been working in a clinical setting who want to go beyond and participate in another aspect of dentistry,” explained Dr. Albert Guay, ADA Chief Policy Advisor and member of the Hillenbrand Fellowship Review Committee who manages the fellowship year and works closely with him or her.
“It gives one dentist a chance to look at the many options for second careers within dentistry available to people with clinical backgrounds,” Dr. Guay continued, “and also teaches the fellow about organized dentistry. It’s a busy year filled with traveling and studying and attending ADA Board and council meetings.”
The goal of the 12-month fellowship鈥攚hich is set to begin in September鈥攕upports a dentist who has demonstrated strong leadership potential and desires to make a career transition from dental practice into management and leadership in organized dentistry, a health-related organization, education, the dental industry or research. The ADA offers the fellowship every other year and includes an intensive orientation to all ADA agencies and departments; an orientation to other oral health organizations and federal and state government agencies; academic courses through the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University; and the completion of a project of interest to both the fellow and the ADA.
The qualified candidates must:
- be members in good standing of the ADA;
- be graduates of a dental school accredited by the ADA Commission on Dental Accreditation;
- have held a D.D.S. or D.M.D. degree for at least five years at the beginning of the fellowship;
- be prepared to work from the Chicago office on a daily basis for the duration of the fellowship and travel within the United States as required by the program;
- be prepared to actively support the mission, goals and policies of the ADA and the ADA Foundation, regardless of personal agreement or disagreement with them, for the duration of the fellowship;
- be competent in core computer and Internet skills.
“This is fabulous exposure to the profession as a whole,” said Dr. Guay who worked in private practice (his specialty was orthodontics) for 27 years before joining the ADA as associate executive director of dental practice in 1992. He is also a past ADA trustee from the 1st District and past chair of the Council on Dental Care (now Dental Benefit Programs.)
“I think the average dentist has an incomplete understanding of what their Association does or how our tripartite system works,” he said. “Former fellows are amazed at the complexities of the work that the ADA does and the huge amount of resources that are available to members and local dental societies.”
During the year, each fellow visits component and constituent dental societies and selects classes to audit from the curriculum at Kellogg.
Once he or she gets to Chicago, the fellow has the option of adding to the program whatever aspect in dentistry interests the individual most. For 2005 Hillenbrand Fellow Luciana Sweis, that meant researching the need for additional oral health care providers. For Dr. Dufurrena, it was teledentistry.
“Once we identify a fellow’s special interest, we can tailor the program to some degree to include experience in it for the individual,” Dr. Guay said. “There’s nothing I am aware of that provides this kind of experience within the profession, and in turn, we’ve been lucky; we’ve been very pleased with the latest hard-working and interesting fellows who have spent a year with us.
“To see their progression in development in the year that they spend with us and the enthusiasm they bring to the profession is a really neat thing.”
The fellowship also includes a $75,000 stipend to help offset living expenses in Chicago.
For more information, visit www.adafoundation.org or contact Jane Jasek at jasekj@ada.org or call the ADA toll-free, Ext. 4639 to request an application.