Owens Iguodala is the Policy Officer for EDSA leading on the equality, diversity and inclusion policy. He was born and grew up in Italy for the first 12 years of his life after which he moved to the UK with his family. In 2015 he graduated as a pharmacist from University College London. He then retrained as a dentist, graduating from the University of Aberdeen last June. He is currently undertaking a training post in Scotland.

Outside of his training, he is one of the Vice Presidents for Medic Mentor, leading some of the projects on widening access to medicine, dentistry and veterinary sciences. He is also a Scholar of the Healthcare Leadership Academy, in the Amsterdam cohort.

Dr Laura Beaton is a researcher within the Dental Clinical Effectiveness workstream, part of NHS Education for Scotland. She is part of the TRiaDS research team, and her role primarily involves helping to support and evaluate the implementation of dental guidance produced by the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP).

Recently, she has been involved with research to inform the development of SDCEP’s COVID-19 resources, and is part of the CAREER project, a research collaboration between NHS Education for Scotland, the University of Dundee and the University of St Andrews, conducting a longitudinal study of uncertainties, anxieties and preparedness for practice in dental health professionals during the pandemic.

Laura has worked in the area of dental research since 2013 and has a background in Health Psychology, with a particular interest in health services research and behaviour change.

Emma is a final year dental student at Barts and the London Dental School in the UK. During her studies she has developed a specific interest in patient mental health and how we, as trainee dentists, are educated in this topic. She has authored and led two publications in the BDJ, and is currently working on a series for Dental Update on the theme of psychiatry in dentistry. Patient mental health and its relationship to dentistry is under discussion despite the presentation being overly prevalent, she is hopeful her work shines a light on this important topic.

Ronald C. Gorter, PhD, is a psychologist specialised in behavioural and educational aspects of dentistry. He earned his doctorate in Psychology at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and is associate professor with the department of Dental Educational Research / Oral Radiology of the Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA). He teaches communication skills and behavioural aspects of working as a health professional to both dental students and graduated dentists. His research focuses on dentist - patient or staff communication, work stress, burnout, and educational developments in the dental curriculum. Dr Gorter is (co-)author of over eighty Dutch and international professional and scientific publications. He is Executive Member of the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE), member of the Platform for Better Oral Health in Europe, and is Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Dental Education.