FEHDD Annual Session: Building your leadership legacy through mentorship and empathy

The annual face to face meeting of the Forum of European Heads and Deans of Dental Schools. Progamme outline to follow.

There is much documented in the literature about dentistry and oral health professions education being at a crossroads. Increased use of technologies, virtual realities and AI, combined with changing professional boundaries as well as shifting sociodemographic and political priorities are changing our operational environment - be it clinical, research or academic.

Leadership is not just about responding to a changing environment. It must be concerned with proactively creating an effective and cohesive environment that fosters and nourishes growth and development. In our new reality with a pace of change that has not been previously experienced, achieving this is becoming a more complex and challenging task. A task further exacerbated by the seismic change in life experiences and expectations of those now entering the academic workforce in comparison to many who hold current leadership roles.

It can be difficult to focus on succession and mentorship while embedded in the day to day responsibilities of being an academic leader. 

This session will not only argue for the essential role of mentorship, it will equip you with useful skills and expertise you can immediately utilise in your workplace. 

Through a combination of panel discussion, interactive learning session and personal reflection the session aims to give you pause for thought on how evolving your empathy skills can improve you as a mentor which in turn empowers succession planning, and growth in your workforce. 

Our workshop component will be facilitated by Dr Richard W. Valachovic and Dr Karl Haden both of whom will be well known to ADEE colleagues for their leadership in advancing American dental education.

They will be joined by distinguished colleagues who will share their European experiences of empathy and mentorship as part of the panel discussion. 

We encourage those of you planning on attending to consider bringing a mentee to the session.