TRI-COLLEGE DAY
American College of Dentists | International College of Dentists | Pierre Fauchard Academy
American College of Dentists
The mission of the American College of Dentists, ACD, is to uphold excellence, ethics, leadership and professionalism in dentistry. This honorary organization is known as “the conscience of dentistry” and the College has a current emphasis on leadership development.
International College of Dentists
The USA Section of the International College of Dentists (ICD) recognizes and promotes excellence in leadership with an emphasis on service.
Pierre Fauchard Academy
The mission of Pierre Fauchard Academy, PFA, is to recognize and develop outstanding leadership in the profession of dentistry. While the objectives of this honorary dental organization are many, education and support of dental students is an important focus.
Washington Section Tri-College Day
A Lens on Leadership
While the Noble Room in the Washington Athletic Club was full of fifty leaders in their own right, the objective of the day on March 21, 2025 was to examine leadership from various perspectives in order to learn and connect with one another.
Tri- Colege Day Emerges
Immediately after the last Tri-College Education Day, held at Cedarbrook Lodge in March 2019, plans were underway for the following years’ program. Mr. Scott Henderson, husband of Dr. Robin Henderson, agreed to undertake the bulk of the planning with the help of Washington Section ACD Section Chair, Dr. Susan Adams, and ICD Section Chair, Dr. Mary Smith. As plans succumbed to the COVID pandemic for the following five years, this important day emerged, at last, in 2025.
In the meantime, leadership on the ACD Section Board had become engaged in the process of planning to include Chair, Darcie Morris; Immediate-Past Chair, Susan Adams; Secretary, Lauren Hagel; Treasurer, Dat Giap; Editor, Robin Henderson; Member At-Large, Larry Garetto. ICD Section Chair, Mary Smith, and PFA Chair, Audrey Tatt, were also on the planning committee. Scott Henderson remained the lead on the project and the graphics for the event were designed by Lou Ann Mercier. While the objectives of the day were to grow our leadership aptitude and enjoy fellowship amongst colleagues, the overarching goal was to raise money to support student scholarships that each of the three organizations award to dental students. Over the five years that the event did not happen, scholarships were still awarded, thus the financial impact was realized by each of the honorary organizations.
, event organizer, introduces the four event sponsors, ADS Equipment Inc, Dental Accounting Group, Delta Dental of Washington, and Washington Dentists Insurance Agency, who largely covered the expenses of holding the meeting so that tuition paid by attendees was for the t of student scholarships.
“ No matter how dentistry changes, what cannot change is ethics.
Right: Amy Doneen Author, Owner and Medical Director of the Prevention Center, spoke about her journey into the field of arteriology as it relates to prevention of heart attack, stroke, and dementia. She spoke to one of the things she does differently, from the standard of care in medicine, being attention to periodontal health and that she addressed the ethical dilemma of providing care in the current insurance system by creating her own system of care, where she is spending much time with patients, and seeing amazing outcomes, but with the knowledge that she cannot see everyone. Her second book (2022), Healthy Heart, Healthy Brain, was available for sale at the event, with proceeds supporting Tri-College Day.
“ I had an ethical dilemma.
Attendees were
Mark Mitchke , CEO Delta Dental of Washington (DDWA) comes from a management consulting background where he has most-enjoyed problem solving in large and complicated systems. His topic was on leading through conflict, as when he joined DDWA, there was already a very deep conflict in place. He shared six steps that he uses to collaborate through conflict. Once issues around the conflict are identified, he recommended starting on your issues first and making small impacts, he referred to as “eliminating paper cuts,” or things that could be done quickly to
Col Brian Newberry, CEO Girl Scouts, Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho (GSEWNI)
Brian used humor and passion to deliver a compelling message on why culture in organizations matters. Brian shared many illustrations from his experience leading approximately 4000 girls, 2000 adult volunteers, and an expert staff of 35, across 67,000 square miles of his Council. He also drew upon his experience as a Colonel in the USAF where he was a base Commander in addition to being a pilot. Brian shared that “leadership matters — if you want to make a difference, you can. But if you want to make lasting change, you need to change culture.” The approach he leadership. His example in GSEWNI is that he and his team serve the volunteers because the volunteer will serve the Girl Scout. One attendee verbalized that she found this to be very thought-provoking and she will bring more attention to how she can best serve her team, so that they can better serve her patients. Brian shared that listening is the most important part of servant leadership and without trust, you have nothing. Empathy is another component of servant leadership and he demonstrates that most frequently by doing the job alongside others. When he was a Base Commander, he would regularly work in the job of those on base and then send a note to the family of the airman uplifting the significance of his/her service to the country. He left us with “A leaders job is to give vision and when you believe in those that you lead, great things happen.”
improve the issues and help lead to direct communications with each involved party. Another step included creating “win-win” situations, where both parties benefit from working on certain issues together. Finally, the last step was on finding reasons to continue to work together.
He shared that, through experience, he has found the conflict resolution model described works best when there is a shared view of what the best outcome might be, whereas in a more complicated situation, the six step process isn’t always going to lead to a sustainable outcome. Nonetheless, he believes that dialogue is crucial, particularly when you are in conflict. That said, he states that he is also open to the fact that sometimes there may be challenges as to the way things are structured which may not lead to a perfect outcome for everyone.
Sophie Henderson, Author and Gonzaga University Student
“If you care about one another, you can make the world a better place.”
Sophie is the author of the book, Lead — A Young Leader’s Guide to Changing the World, and she shared a message on the ever-evolving practice of leadership. Although she wrote her book just two years ago at the age of 17, her thoughts around leadership have greatly evolved, but the three themes that she still identifies with most are 1) Leadership is not an inherent talent that some people have and others do not but, rather, leadership is a decision and an attribute that can be accessed by everyone in different ways. 2) As leaders, we must maximize what we can control and learn to let go of, and have peace with, what we cannot. 3) Perfect is not flawless execution; perfect is everyone caring.
Sophie gave many inspiring examples from her past two years as to the evolution of her thoughts on leadership and summarized her more recent learnings as 1) Many issues have the same root. 2) Past leadership is not wrong; your current leadership needed a foundation to build upon. 3) Lessons often need to be relearned in order to reach their full potential.
“ If you don’t alow yourself to believe that you are an extraordinary world-changer, you won’t act like it. If you don’t act like it, you won’t have an extraordinary impact.”
Linda Edgar needs no introduction as she just completed her term as the 160th ADA President. She is a hero amongst top leaders in our profession. Linda has been a student of leadership for years and has read and summarized over 200 books on the subject, culminating in her book, Climb Every Mountain, which contains the many inspiring quotes and poems that helped her to become a better leader. All attendees of Tri-College Day received a copy of her book, which is also available on Amazon.
In addition to leadership wisdom of others, Linda has much leadership wisdom of her own, as evidenced by her quotes in her book. One of my favorite quotes that she shared was “Levity. Brevity. Repeat. Repeat.” By this she means that to communicate impactfully, keep your words light-hearted and brief.
“L evity. Brevity. Repeat. Repeat.”
A message that we can use to improve all of our respective organizations is “Lift as you climb,” meaning, bring others along with you in your leadership journey — personally invite others to events such as this, nominate colleagues for fellowship in these honorary organizations, and reach out to the younger generation and offer your encouragement.
Dr. Larry Garetto is a fellowship-trained ethicist and is Past-President of the American Society for Dental Ethics as well as the recipient of the John Gies Award, the highest honor the ACD can bestow upon a Fellow. Dr. Garetto facilitated conversations and gave guidance around the ethics of leadership. He first asked his audience the question “What is ethics?” and there were many responses and conversations, including the sentiment that ethics is difficult to teach. Dr. Garetto guided the discussion and shared that as a professional, there is a different code of ethics that we take on and he believes it can be taught. Larry shared that ethics are “outward looking,” or looking out for others, and that we should consider ethics as reflecting on right behavior, not just the action we take, but the thinking we do. He listed the characteristics of ethical leadership to be honesty, integrity, kindness, competence, service to others, and giving back. He described the inward and outward focus of a leader where, inwardly, the leader accepts responsibility, is courageous with humility, is self-reflective with a willingness to listen and to understand before acting. Outwardly, the ethical leader enables and builds-up his/her followers, leads with compassion and empathy, and has a willingness to ask for help and advice. Interestingly, Larry sited two possible outcomes of impact upon those that you lead. Either your followers experience distrust and threat, and they respond with defensive self-interest, or their experience rewards cooperation, collegiality and trust, and they come to accept these attitudes as normal and rational. In other words, leadership is about the environmental culture. One of thoughts he left us with is “What you permit, you promote,” and turning your back to disrespectful, unprofessional or unethical behavior simply causes it to get worse.
With gratitude for our speakers, attendees, sponsors and organizers. Your engagement will abundantly impact dental student scholarships AND those that you lead! We appreciate you prioritizing this event. For Your Calendar:
Washington Section Tri-College Day
2026 Friday MARCH 20, 2026 See you there! Bring a friend!
