DeW_Spring2026

Spring 2026

I Stopped Shrinking for People Who Needed Me Small BY

Strengths Through a Different Lens BY

BORN to SAVE TEETH

My Journey of Purpose, Perseverance, and Possibility by DR. SONIA

CHOPRA

You Don’t Realize You’re a Lone Wolf Until You Find Your Pack BY

From "Dark Spot" to Defining a Legacy: A Decade of Resilience BY

LESLIE ESPINOLA

STACEY SLOAN

DR. WHITNEY D. WEINER

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Spring 2026 Issue brought to you by Kerr Dental

Editor and Publisher

Anne M. Duffy, RDH

Project Manager

Tari Sixpence

Director of Operations & Business Development

Karla Moreno

Creative Consultant

Beth Linesch

Design and Layout

Brian Rummel

Production

[CURAtive]

James B. Kennedy

Web Management

Golden Proportions

Conference Strategist and Advisor

Vanessa Vitagliano

Cover Photo

Yulia Sribna

Stylist

Tali Kogan

Spring Contributors

Dr. Zina Berry

Dr. Sonia Chopra

Ann-Marie DePalma

Maritza Duran

Leslie Espinola

Dr. Jessica Lederhausen

Lynne Leggette

Dr. Sara Mahmood

Dr. Sharon Parsons

Dr. Jane C. Puskas

Editorial Office

8334 Pineville Matthews Rd

Ste. 103-201 Charlotte, NC 28226

704-953-0261

Fax 704-847-3315

anneduffy@dew.life

Guidelines go to dew.life

There are moments you don’t plan for.

You show up, you do the work, and then something shifts in a way you can feel but not fully explain yet.

That’s what happened at Hinman.

During Women’s History Month, more than 200 women came together for the first Dental Entrepreneur Woman x Hinman Women’s Breakfast. It wasn’t just a full room. It was a room where women stayed, talked, and shared what’s really going on behind the scenes of their lives and careers.

Joanna Scott

Stacey Sloan

Dr. Desirée Waker

Dr. Whitney D. Weiner

Brandi Williams

Beverly Wilburn

Dr. Valerie Woo

Amber Young

Charter Sponsors

We premiered Women Shaping Dentistry Tomorrow, produced by Studio EightyEight and directed by Joanna Scott. What mattered most wasn’t just the film, it was what opened up after. The conversations. The honesty. The willingness to say things we don’t always say out loud in this profession.

That’s what this issue is about.

I want to start with our cover, because this one is personal. Dr. Sonia Chopra is not just someone I respect, she’s a friend. I’ve had a front row seat to her evolution, and it hasn’t been linear or easy. That’s what makes her story matter.

She writes about growing up feeling like she didn’t fully belong anywhere, about being pushed into a career path that wasn’t originally hers, and about the experience that ultimately changed everything for her: a misdiagnosis that left her in pain until someone finally slowed down and correctly identified the issue.

That moment stayed with her. And you can see how it shaped the way she practices, teaches, and leads today. What I respect most about Sonia is that she didn’t stop at building a successful practice. She kept asking harder questions. About how she was living. About what she actually wanted. About what needed to change.

She did the work to realign her life. And now she’s helping other dentists do the same. That’s not easy to do. And it’s not something you can fake.

You’ll see that same honesty throughout this issue.

Leslie Espinola writes about the feeling of slowly losing your voice in the wrong environment and what it takes to get it back.

Advisory Board

Advisory Board

Debora Carrier

Angela

Brandi Hooker Evans JJ Litrell

Sara Ritchie

Aimee Vail

Beverly Wilburn

Whitney Weiner names something a lot of leaders don’t say out loud: you can be successful and still feel alone. Until you find the right people who understand what you’re carrying.

Sara Mahmood shares what it looked like to walk onto a main stage just months after giving birth—not fully herself, not fully recovered, but showing up anyway.

And Amber Young reminds us why this work matters in the first place. That what we do as dental professionals has real consequences, real impact, and sometimes, life-changing outcomes.

None of these stories are polished. They’re real. And that’s the point.

What we’re building with Dental Entrepreneur Woman has never been about putting women on a pedestal. It’s about creating spaces where women can tell the truth about what this actually looks like.

The wins.

The pressure.

The doubt.

The growth.

All of it.

That’s what I felt at Hinman. And that’s what you’ll feel in this issue.

If you take anything from this, let it be this:

You’re not the only one figuring it out as you go.

You’re not the only one carrying more than people see.

And you don’t have to do it alone.

We’re just getting started.

Love, Anne Duffy

BORN TO SAVE TEETH: MY JOURNEY OF PURPOSE, PERSEVERANCE, AND POSSIBILITY

Ididn’t grow up dreaming of being a dentist. I grew up trying to understand where I belonged.

As a young Indian girl raised in the United States, I often felt like I was living between worlds,never fully accepted in either. In the U.S., I was “too Indian.” In India, I was “too American.” I learned early what it felt like to be an outsider, to constantly adapt, to read the room, to perform belonging rather than feel it. To this day, I’m not sure which culture outcasted me more. What I do know is that the confusion planted something deep inside me: resilience, adaptability, and a hunger to find meaning beyond labels.

Like many children of immigrants, my career path felt pre-written. Doctor. Dentist. Lawyer. These were not suggestions; they were expectations. And so, like a good Indian girl, I followed the rules. I didn’t question them. I didn’t rebel. I trusted that if I stayed obedient, clarity would eventually come.

At seventeen, something happened that would quietly shape the rest of my life.

For months, I lived with a toothache that no one could diagnose. I went from provider to provider, appointment to appointment, each time being told that everything looked “fine.” And yet, I was in relentless pain, the kind that wears you down emotionally as much as it does physically. I learned what it feels like to not be believed in your body. To be dismissed. To be told to live with it.

Eventually, because the pain was so severe and no one could clearly identify its source, a decision was made to extract a tooth.

By Dr. Sonia Chopra

And it was the wrong one.

The tooth was removed, but the pain didn’t go away. Because the problem had never been that tooth. I was seventeen years old, missing a tooth I didn’t need to lose, still living with the same unbearable pain, and now carrying the quiet trauma of a system that had gotten it wrong.

Eventually, I was referred to an endodontist.

For the first time, someone slowed down. Someone listened. Someone asked better questions and looked deeper. A correct diagnosis was finally made. The right tooth was identified. A root canal was performed.

And just like that, the pain I had been living with for months disappeared.

That moment stayed with me. Not just because the pain was gone, but because I experienced, viscerally, the difference between guessing and knowing, between treating symptoms and understanding root cause.

At seventeen, I couldn’t have known that this experience was anything more than bad luck. I didn’t yet understand its purpose. I lived the story long before I understood what it meant. That meaning would come much later.

I now understand that my tooth story wasn't a coincidence. It was preparation. It was an initiation. I had lived the consequences of misdiagnosis before I ever had the language for it, before I ever understood what it meant to truly care for someone in pain.

By the time I arrived at dental school, having chosen one of the paths laid out for me, I carried that story with me, even if I didn’t yet know how to name it or understand why this particular path had claimed me.

Dental school was not love at first sight.

In fact, when I arrived, I was honestly bad at it.

I struggled. I questioned myself constantly. In my very first year, one of my professors pulled me aside and suggested that I consider switching careers. His words crushed me. Had quitting ever been an option for me, that might have been the moment, but it wasn’t. I hadn’t come this far to turn back. His words crushed me, but beneath the pain, something deeper stirred. I knew, without being able to explain it, that I had to stay. That leaving would mean abandoning a question that still lived inside me, unanswered. I hadn’t yet figured out my tooth story, and I wasn’t willing to walk away before I understood why I had lived it in the first place.

In four years of dental school, I had only two weeks of endodontic training. Two weeks to understand pain, infection, and healing. Two weeks to prepare us for patients who would one day show up desperate for relief— patients like me, years earlier, searching for answers and begging for the pain to stop. I didn’t have the language yet for what felt wrong, but I felt it in my body.

So I did what I’ve always done.

I studied harder. I paid attention clinically. I asked questions. And somewhere along the way, things

shifted. I began to understand teeth not as procedures, but as stories—each one carrying context, history, and consequence.

I ended up doing very well in dental school, not because it suddenly became easy, but because mastery matters to me. It always has.

That’s something I’ve come to deeply love about myself.

No matter what I choose, I commit. If I chose tennis, I would master it. If I chose art, I would study it relentlessly. Excellence, for me, is a form of respect—respect for the craft and for myself. That drive is simply part of who I am.

After graduation, I worked as a general dentist, but the pull toward endodontics never left me. Two years into practice, I returned for an endodontic residency, not as an abstract career move, but as a conscious decision to step fully into the work that had been calling me all along. I returned to school, this time with purpose, and once again, I thrived. I honestly believe this type of success is written into my birth chart. I am a Sagittarius and a 5:1 Generator. I am designed to lead, to solve problems, to pave paths where none existed before. My spirituality has never been separate from my success, it has always informed it.

When I completed my endodontic residency, I couldn’t find a job.

At that point, there were only two options: stay unemployed or open my own practice. And if you haven’t guessed by now, unemployment simply was not a

choice for me. I didn’t come all this way to endure doubt, discipline, and years of training just to not work.

So I opened my own practice.

It was 2008. The economy had tanked. Fear was everywhere. But I was starting at ground zero, and all I could see was up. I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, a city where I didn’t know a single person, and began building my practice from scratch.

Day after day, I faced rejection, mostly from men. Doors were closed. Calls went unanswered. But instead of shrinking, I recalibrated.

I began building my own network. I connected with female dentists; women who, like me, were navigating a profession that hadn’t quite been built with us in mind. At the time, we were a new and growing breed. So when others slammed doors in my face, I built a tribe.

And slowly, the practice grew.

From one doctor to three.

From a team of two to eighteen.

Through that growth, I learned what is truly possible when belief outweighs fear.

Ten years into my practice, I thought I had reached the pinnacle of my career. And yet, something inside me whispered: you’re not done.

Nearly two decades after my own tooth story, patients continued to walk into my practice with the same pain, the same confusion, the same lack of answers. Dentists were still undertrained. Endodontic education hadn’t evolved. And if we continued to sit back, nothing would

ever change.

So I birthed E-School.

My online endodontic education platform was created so that dentists could finally learn the one thing they signed up to do—to save teeth. This is my mission. I lived this story. And I continue to see that help is needed every single day.

That passion eventually led me to the TEDx stage, where I spoke about saving teeth and transforming dental care.

And if you had told me when I first started my career that I would be on the lecture circuit in dentistry, I would have thought you were absolutely mad.

I look young. I am a woman of color. And I am certainly not an older white man—the image that, for far too long, quietly defined authority in dentistry. I wasn’t raised to see myself at the podium. I was raised to keep my head down and do good work.

But expertise doesn’t have a gender, an age, or a uniform. It has lived experience. And mine demanded to be shared.

But before that realization arrived, my body intervened.

After years of building, striving, leading, and carrying the weight of responsibility, I hit a wall I couldn’t outwork. The long hours, the constant decision-making, and the emotional labor of caring for patients, teams, and my family—it all caught up to me. I was successful on paper, but depleted on the inside. Burnout didn’t announce itself loudly; it crept in quietly, through exhaustion, numbness, and a growing sense that something essential was being ignored.

That burnout became my awakening.

For the first time, I was forced to listen—not to expectations, not to metrics, not to applause—but to my own body and inner voice. It was no longer enough to be accomplished. I needed to be aligned. I needed to feel well. I needed to know that the life I was building actually belonged to me.

In 2016, I realized I had been living someone else’s dream.

Not unhappily, but unconsciously.

I’m grateful I didn’t have to decide my career at eighteen. Who really knows themselves then? But what I’m most proud of is taking what was given to me and making it my own.

I began aligning my life intentionally. I invested deeply in my growth. I sought guidance from coaches and mentors, and I did the hard, often uncomfortable inner work required to unlearn patterns that no longer served me and consciously choose the life I wanted to build. I listened to my body. I asked myself who I wanted to be as a woman, as a mother, as a dentist, and as an entrepreneur.

I knew one thing for certain, I wouldn’t last working five days a week forever.

So I changed it.

I figured out how to generate the same revenue working five days a month as I once did working five days a week, without sacrificing quality. I understood my worth. I built systems. I trusted my team.

I built a team I loved so deeply that we traveled to Paris together—not just as coworkers, but as humans connected by trust and joy. And I never did it alone. I hired coaches—many of them—because leadership does not mean isolation.

At some point, I made a declaration:

I want to live my life feeling good.

Now, after all of the hustle, I want something different. More stillness. More joy. More laughter. More connection. More love.

That desire—to slow down, to ask better questions, to live with intention—ultimately gave birth to my podcast, University of Why

University of Why is a reflection of who I have become. It is a space for curiosity, for meaning-making, for honest conversations about career, motherhood, entrepreneurship, spirituality, and wellness. It is rooted in the belief that life isn’t just about what we do, but why we do it. Each episode is an invitation—to pause, to reflect, and to design a life aligned with our deepest values.

In many ways, the podcast is the natural extension of my work. Just as I teach dentists to ask better diagnostic questions, University of Why encourages us to ask better life questions. Because clarity—whether in dentistry or in life—changes everything. I’m no longer chasing anything—because everything I ever wanted was always within me.

My journey has never been linear, but it has always been purposeful.

I was born to be a dentist.

Not just to treat teeth—but to pave the way for change, to save teeth, and to lead with heart.

And I am just getting started.

About the author:

Dr. Sonia Chopra is a healer and tooth saver. She’s a boardcertified endodontist, TEDx speaker, Forbes contributor, author, endodontic instructor, impact entrepreneur, and founder of Ballantyne Endodontics in Charlotte, North Carolina.

On top of running her thriving practice, Dr. Chopra provides groundbreaking digital education and community support to general dentists and endodontists who want to uplevel their technical skills, patient experience, and practice efficiency. Through her thoughtfully-designed courses and in-person programs, such as her award-winning E-School, she is revolutionizing endodontic continuing education through the simple, tangible lessons rooted in her own diverse experience.

WHEN STRENGTH FEELS HEAVY: WALKING THE MAIN STAGE JUST MONTHS AFTER BIRTH

There are moments in life that look glamorous from the outside. The spotlight, the stage, the applause… but behind that polish lies a quiet war.

For me, that moment came in 2024, when I was invited to speak on the Main Stage at DS World, one of the most prestigious events in dentistry, just days after giving birth to my daughter.

It should have been pure elation. But, as Dr. Becky Kennedy teaches, two things can be true at the same time.

I was both ecstatic and devastated.

The Invitation That Changed Everything

When the email arrived, I remember staring at my phone in disbelief. To share the stage with global innovators, the very people who once inspired me, felt surreal. This was the kind of career milestone every speaker dreams about. It was one that I wasn’t expecting to accomplish for at least another decade.

But then, like a second shadow, another thought crept in: I just had a baby.

In the blur of postpartum recovery, sleepless nights, and milk-stained shirts, I couldn’t fathom the idea of standing under blinding lights in front of thousands. My body still felt so incredibly foreign. It was soft in places that had once been strong. My hormones were unpredictable. My confidence, fragile.

By Dr. Sara Mahmood, DDS MS MAGD

And yet, saying no was absolutely not an option. Saying yes felt like defiance. It was a stand for the woman, the mother, the leader I wanted to continue being.

The War Between Pride and Pain

What followed was months of internal conflict. Every time I practiced my presentation, I felt proud. But every time I looked in the mirror, I felt disheartened.

I knew people would see the polished exterior - the hair, the outfit, the confidence - but I also knew what they wouldn’t see: the swelling that hadn’t gone down, the exhaustion that no concealer could hide, the quiet ache of sadness of feeling like my body no longer belonged to me.

I thought back to my previous pregnancies, when “bouncing back” was slow, slow, slow. This time was different. My body was slower somehow despite every effort to get strong again. I was working with a personal trainer, being mindful of my nutrition, drinking more water than I ever had before. But some things can’t be sped up, I guess.

Still, I told myself: You’ve done hard things before, you can do this too.

The Mirror Moment

Just weeks before DS World, I stood in my closet surrounded by clothes I was so excited to order online… that didn’t fit. I had guessed my size completely wrong. The mirror became my harshest critic.

Every outfit I tried on was a reminder that my body hadn’t “snapped back.” If anything, it had rebelled. The scale and I had broken up years earlier. I was too afraid to know the number.

I cried, not because of vanity, but because of grief. Grief for the body that used to feel like mine. Grief for the expectation, both internal and external, that I should somehow be both a world-class professional and an effortlessly radiant new mom.

It was a low moment. But even there, I could feel something sacred rising beneath the sadness. It was a different kind of strength.

When Courage Isn’t the Absence of Fear

A few weeks ago at the DS World Annual Women’s Dinner, someone asked me how I have the courage to go on such big stages.

I smiled and said, “I’m scared like all of you. I feel all of the normal ranges of feelings. But when I’m scared… I do it anyway.”

That line has become my quiet mantra. Courage doesn’t erase fear. It just teaches you to walk with it.

The truth is, the weight of motherhood, entrepreneurship, and leadership is heavy — sometimes unbearably so. But I’ve learned that strength isn’t always about standing tall. Sometimes it’s just about standing.

Showtime

When the day finally came, I remember the hum of the crowd, the lights blinding but beautiful. My heart raced as I stepped onto the stage… not because I wasn’t ready, but because I was.

In that instant, the noise of insecurity faded. I wasn’t thinking about my body, my weight, or how long it had been since I’d slept more than four hours.

I was thinking about how much I loved my fierce red suit and new Gucci shoes. I was thinking about how my dad, my sister, and my three-month-old daughter were sitting in the audience and how my daughter would never remember that day, but I would never forget it.

I remember thinking: Let her see me now. Not perfect. Not polished. But present.

Because one day, when she faces her own stage, literal

or otherwise, I want her to know that courage can coexist with fear, beauty can coexist with exhaustion, and success can coexist with struggle.

Two things can be true at the same time.

Redefining What “Having It All” Means

When I spoke at the DS World Women’s Dinner in September, I committed myself to going on stage with vulnerability and transparency. No fluffy BS. I shared a glimpse of this story I’m sharing now. And afterward, countless women approached me. Some congratulated me on my successes. Others whispered their own postpartum stories… the tears in fitting rooms, the selfdoubt, the quiet resentment toward their reflection.

It reminded me how deeply women crave honesty. We’ve been conditioned to chase perfection, to “have it all,” to make achievement look effortless. But I’ve realized that the real power lies in showing the effort.

Maybe “having it all” isn’t about doing everything flawlessly. Maybe it’s about doing what matters while still being human.

Grace Over Grit

Motherhood has taught me that grit gets you to the stage, but grace lets you breathe once you’re there.

In the months following DS World, I stopped chasing my pre-baby body and started trying to honor my present one. Emphasis on “trying”.

I’m learning that healing doesn’t happen on a timeline. Whether physical or emotional, it demands patience and compassion, the same qualities we extend to others but often withhold from ourselves.

And most importantly, I’m learning that resilience isn’t built in the easy seasons. It’s forged in the tension between fear and faith.

If I Could Tell Her Something

If I could go back and whisper something to the woman standing in that closet crying over dresses and suits that didn’t fit, I’d tell her this: “You don’t owe the world a

bounce-back. You owe yourself gentleness.” I’d also tell her you watched her on stage and she f*cking crushed it.

When I think back on that day, I realized something: I wasn’t just walking on stage for me. I was walking for every woman who’s ever questioned whether she was enough.

I was walking for the mothers balancing spreadsheets and nap schedules, for the business owners building empires during nap time, for the dreamers who feel both powerful and imperfect.

Because the truth is — we don’t have to choose between those two things.

Two things can be true at the same time.

And that’s where the beauty is.

About the author:

Dr. Sara Mahmood is the Founder & CEO of brush365 and brush365 Dental Injury, CEO of ZENITH Injury Relief & Wellness Clinics, and co-founder of Dr. Realtors. A visionary dentist and entrepreneur, she leads with integrity, innovation, and impact. Recognized by D CEO Magazine, Dallas Business Journal, and Incisal Edge 40 Under 40, she’s also a Global Clinical Partner for Dentsply Sirona and proud mom of three.

D eW DATES

Mark your calendars:

ThriveLive by Henry Schein

April 29 - May 2, 2026

Las Vegas, NV

Mommy Dentist in Business CEO Roundtable

April 30 - May 1, 2026

Nashville, TN

The Evolving Expert: WEvolution 2026

May 1 - 3, 2026

Phoenix, AZ

Speaking Consulting Network - Annual Summit

June 1 - 3, 2026

Santa Barbara, CA

Association of Dental Support Organization: ADSO

June 15 -17, 2026 Chicago, IL

CE on the Beach

June 26 - 27, 2026 Maui, HI

Dykema

July 15 - 17, 2026 Aurora, CO

RDH - Under One Roof

July 16-18,2026

National Harbor, MD

If you want to arrange a meetup, please email anneduffy@dew.life for a complete updated list of dew dates go to the private FB DeW Life crew page.

DeWs at Hinman 2026

Photos credit: Studio EightyEight

DEW Dish

Ann-Marie DePalma CE presenter Stoneham, MA @depalmaannmarie; www.linkedin.com/in/annmariedepalma depalmaannmarie.com

What’s your favorite part of the work you do, and why does it light you up?

Creating CE programs and seeing/hearing participants “getting it” when the light bulb moment happens or they ask insightful questions

Tell us about a woman who’s deeply influenced your life or career. What did she teach you?

A friend who has experienced a number of set backs in her life, both physically and emotionally and how she has picked herself up through all of the challenges life has thrown her way. She is always positive and looks at the brighter side of things, even when it may be darkest.

How do you personally define success—and how do you know when you’ve hit it?

Success for me is the ability to do what I am doing, educating dental professionals and teams about topics that I am passionate about.

What’s one challenge you’ve faced in your career, and how did you overcome it?

Being let go from a position that I thought was my dream job after a number of years. Thinking about my friend and how she handled set backs allowed me to be resilient and pick myself back up, dust myself off and get back to doing what I truly was meant to do.

What’s your go-to way to reset when you’re having a rough day?

Relaxing with family or watching a good tv drama or Boston sports teams.

What advice would you give someone starting their journey in your field today?

Just like life, your career is full of ups and downs, hills and valleys. Having faith in whatever manner you choose (organized religion or not) is a guiding force that will sustain you as you go through those ups and downs. As the saying goes, when one door closes another opens, be open to whatever comes your way and say yes.

What does real work-life harmony look like for you these days?

Having days in front of the computer creating programs or presenting virtually or in person and then unwinding with family/friends or volunteering at several community organizations

What’s a quote or personal motto that keeps you grounded or inspired?

Always growing, always elevating

Who would you love to have lunch with (living or passed), and what would you ask them?

Ruth Bader Ginsberg - How do I keep going when progress feels slow but important?

What’s your walk-on stage anthem—the song that pumps you up?

Roar by Katy Perry

What’s one guilty pleasure that always brings you joy (no guilt allowed!)?

Anything chocolate and then paired with a good wine!

What movie or TV show always makes you laugh no matter how many times you’ve seen it?

Ted Lasso - it is optimistic, intelligent and quietly hilarious

Describe your dream vacation. Where are you, who’s with you, and what are you doing?

An Italian countryside and coastal escape with a blend of cooking/wine tasting, history and relaxation - my family and a few close friends

Brandi

Williams Chief Growth Officer

Edmond, OK

www.linkedin.com/in/brandi-williams-/

What’s your favorite part of the work you do, and why does it light you up?

The best part of my role is growing our managers and helping our newly acquired practices navigate transition. I love taking something that can feel intimidating and helping teams see the opportunity, the growth, and the excitement on the other side.

Tell us about a woman who’s deeply influenced your life or career. What did she teach you?

“How much time do you have? It would be nearly impossible to highlight just one woman. There have been so many who saw things in me that I didn’t yet see in myself.

Teresa Williams taught me to see the potential in everyone around me and continues to be an incredible example of lifting others up and actively sponsoring women in our industry.

Carrie Webber’s spark and energy are contagious. She graciously mentored me while also challenging me to reflect on myself and my role, ultimately helping me create space and a true seat at the table.

Anne Duffy is someone I had admired from a distance for years, but getting the opportunity to share on a panel with her last year was a turning point for me. Watching how she challenges leaders to truly understand their strengths and lead with intention was incredibly impactful. It pushed me to take the StrengthsFinder assessment, and it was such a powerful realization to see that the role I’m in today truly aligns with what I naturally do best. She is such a natural connector of people, and I love what she is doing in the dental space.”

How do you personally define success—and how do you know when you’ve hit it?

I define success as finding joy in what you do and actually having fun along the way. It’s about achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself and your organization and feeling proud of the progress you’re making together. And honestly, when you look forward to going to work instead of wanting to curl up in the fetal position before the day even starts, that’s a pretty clear sign you’re doing something right.

What’s one challenge you’ve faced in your career, and how did you overcome it?

“One challenge I’ve faced was realizing I was in the wrong seat in my organization. When I started, it was just me and the owner, and we grew so fast. By the time we had about 15 offices, I realized I wasn’t working in my strengths and because of that, I was actually holding back our growth.

It hurt to admit that I wasn’t performing at the level I wanted. I could have kept pushing to make it work, or I could be honest with myself and say, “I’m not the right person for this role.” Choosing to step into a seat that played to my strengths ended up being the best thing for me and for the organization.”

What advice would you give someone starting their journey in your field today?

My advice is: say yes when an opportunity presents itself. Don’t question whether you are ready, seasoned enough, or qualified enough. Just trust the timing and trust the opportunity. And always invest in yourself. Attend the webinar, go to the conference, build your network, and nurture those connections because the relationships you create will guide you through the tough times.

What does real work-life harmony look like for you these days?

“I love this question because I struggled with it for so many years. I always felt guilty when I heard people talk about work life balance and how women should prioritize it. It wasn’t until I attended the Women in DSO conference several years ago that I heard someone say, “You are the only one who can determine what work life balance looks like for you.”

I love dentistry. I love my job. I enjoy working and sometimes I choose to bring it home. I am also one heck of a mom and grandma. I didn’t miss a cheer competition or a baseball game. I was involved in the PTA and chaperoned church retreats. If you ask my kids, they will tell you I was always there for them, but they also saw first hand what a strong work ethic looks like and what it means to be passionate about your profession.

Fast forward and I have some very successful adult children who are making a huge impact in this world.”

Maritza Duran

MDent Consulting LLC

Oceanside, NY

mdentcs.com

What’s your favorite part of the work you do, and why does it light you up?

To see a business that was once an idea, a dream far away come to fruition. Taking a dentist who is unsure, overwhelmed and confused about their future create an opportunity not only for them, but for their family, their patients and so many employees like myself once who need and want a leader that creates an opportunity for us, your team. It is such a rewarding and joyful process for me.

Tell us about a woman who’s deeply influenced your life or career. What did she teach you?

My grandmother has been the biggest influence in my life. She taught me that love is the force that drives everything we do and it never ends. She passed away 2 years after I came to the US, she fell sick. I was only 13 years old, when I was purchased the flight to come see her, my first trip back home since I came, she died while I was flying back. They waited for me at the cemetery to say my last goodbye. Coming back to the states was devastating, I left my fathers house at the age of 14 and struggled a lot to survive on my own. But my grandmother was my angel, she still is and always will be until we meet again. In the meantime, everything I do in this earth is in her honor, she was a simple woman who worked so hard to raise her children, she did not know how to read or write. In her honor, I am ending the generational cycle of poverty and lack in my family. She’s been my guard and inspiration both in my personal life and my career.

How do you personally define success—and how do you know when you’ve hit it?

I always look for the evidence around me. My husband giving me a hug at night telling me he loves me after 20 years together. My kids being kind and polite kids, my clients being able to launch their businesses and providing job opportunities and growth to other individuals like me when I started out in my dental career. Seeing everyone and everything around me grow and flourish, knowing that I had contributed to that achievement and that growth is how I define my career success. Personal success comes from my commitment to always learning and growing and knowing my family is strong and loving.

What’s one challenge you’ve faced in your career, and how did you overcome it?

I’ve faced many challenges in my career. The one that stood out to me the most was a time where I was considering merging with another company, I was too naive and didn’t understand that not business owners have the same motive. I was involved in a campaign to destroy my online reputation. I had clients reaching out requesting refunds and not moving forward with services. While some were doing that, others were offering to defend me and showed support. At the end I understood my ideal clients weren’t the ones following the social media noise, cut the ones that would say “you’ve personally opened and managed 15 offices before starting your company, how can I trust more someone whose experience is just one just because they have a better online marketing game” I had to pivot, take losses, rebrand, restructure services. At the end I remind myself my business was not founded on a social media live or podcast opportunity , it was founded on referrals from experts that ranged from attorneys, CPA’s bankers, Dental School Deans, and so many dentists that had the utmost respect for my work and trajectory. I learned there’s a great difference between good marketers and good substance. We take others perceived success as experience

What advice would you give someone starting their journey in your field today?

As much as you’re looking up to somebody else, don’t forget someone else is looking up to you. As much as we focus on measuring ourselves against those who started the journey earlier, there are still people who dream of being where you are today, right now. I just hired a girl for a client who works at Starbucks, I worked as a cashier at a supermarket when I was given my first opportunity to work at a dental office for the first time in 1998. As much as I admire and look up to other amazing experts in the industry and sometimes we tend to pressure ourselves and only look UP the hill, it’s important to also look down. Only looking up brings more of a feeling of lack, but when we also look down and notice and support those that are just starting their own journey, it makes us abundant and attract more abundance.

Dr. Jessica Lederhausen Founder

The Lagom Method

Jupiter, FL and Chicago

TheLagomMethod.com @jessica Lederhausen

What’s your favorite part of the work you do, and why does it light you up?

To work closely with people, recognize their potential, and help uncover possibilities they may not yet see themselves, especially in those moments when they light up and realize what’s possible.

Tell us about a woman who’s deeply influenced your life or career. What did she teach you?

“When I read this question, my mind immediately went to my mother and my grandmother.

My mother opened an immunization clinic just as she had her third child, my younger brother. My grandmother owned and ran a "värdshus”, a warm, welcoming country inn in Sweden. Both women were entrepreneurs in their own right, building businesses while raising families.

Growing up surrounded by them and many other capable women in Sweden, I simply assumed I could do whatever I set my mind to. It never occurred to me to question that.

I also have to credit my father and one of his cousins, both physicians, who gently steered me toward healthcare. Their influence is what led me specifically to dentistry.”

How do you personally define success—and how do you know when you’ve hit it?

“This is a hard question. I’ve come to believe that each of us has to define success for ourselves. For me, success is an inside-out process.

At the center is my marriage. I intuitively knew early on that my life with my husband needed to be the foundation. From there, we were blessed with four children, something I have never taken for granted.

From that stable center, everything else expands outward. Success means continuing to grow as a person, staying engaged with the society I live in, and contributing in meaningful ways. Career matters, but/and it sits on top of that foundation. My work is important and purposeful, but it does not define who I am.

To me, success is alignment: when the inside and the outside of your life match.

My years as both amateur and professional golfer, were my greatest teacher on this. On paper, I had wins. But internally, I was rarely satisfied. Instead of celebrating what I had accomplished, I was always striving for more, aiming higher, pushing harder. On top of that I was very hard on myself when it did not go well enough.

That period showed me how easy it is to confuse achievement with fulfillment. Success without appreciation can feel surprisingly empty. Lack of perspective is not good.

Today, I know I’ve “hit it” when I feel grounded and grateful. When I can celebrate the moment instead of rushing to the next goal. When my work, my family, and my inner life feel aligned. It is still something I have to talk to myself about.

I’ll end by mentioning what I’ve learned from one of the most impressive women I’ve had the privilege to know. Anne-Marie Slaughter famously wrote in The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” Reflecting on that, I’ve come to my own conclusion: I believe you can have it all, you just have to decide what your “all” is and have the courage to claim it on your own terms.“

What’s one challenge you’ve faced in your career, and how did you overcome it?

“I would say that moving to the United States was one of the defining turning points in my life. I had worked incredibly hard to establish myself as a dentist in Sweden. My education, my clinical training, my professional identity, all of it was built with intention and discipline.

When we moved, I knew I wouldn’t be able to practice clinically. That was humbling. It forced me to loosen my grip on how I thought my life was supposed to look.

What first felt like a loss became an invitation. I had to lean into flexibility, creativity, and openness. Instead of clinging to one defined path, I began expanding, going back to school for public health, building new ventures, speaking, writing, connecting disciplines.

Although the move was something I wanted, it still required time and reflection. Even chosen change can take time to fully embrace.”

Dr. Sharon Parsons

Speaker, President of Non-profit Dental Assoc. Sharon K Parsons,DDS, Inc Columbus, OH

FB- Sharon Parsons, IG - @skpdds A Voice For Sean - www.avoiceforsean.org

What’s your favorite part of the work you do, and why does it light you up?

I absolutely love it when I see that I have made a difference, whether it is at the office with patients, when I am speaking, by doing some of the work in my nonprofit or in Organized Dentistry. One of my goals in life is to leave something better than I found it. It doesn’t always work out but when it does there is no feeling like it! Hugs from patients, thank-yous from other dentists, you just can’t put a dollar value on that. On your very last day here in this world it is only the memories that you get to take, so I think it is important to make good ones.

How do you personally define success—and how do you know when you’ve hit it?

For me personally, success is when I go home at the end of the day and know that I have made a difference in a positive way. Don’t get me wrong, money is important and we all need that to live and be able to thrive That is probably more important at the beginning of your career when your bills far outweigh your assets. But after doing this for a while, I realize that what motivates me and makes me incredibly proud is more than money.

What’s one challenge you’ve faced in your career, and how did you overcome it?

I have had a number of those so it is difficult to choose just one. However, what pops in my head is overcoming my fear of public speaking. I was terrified. I would love to tell you that I decided to overcome it, but that isn’t exactly true. I was tricked into a public speaking engagement. At that point I did step

up and work to overcome my fear, I could have backed out. When it came time to speak, they had to put a stool behind the podium because my legs were shaking too hard to stand. But I got through it and realized that I had moved people. I knew at that moment that it was only the beginning of my quest to change the way pain is treated.

What advice would you give someone starting their journey in your field today?

For the field of Dentistry I tell people to spend plenty of time observing in offices. Make sure that you truly like it. Some people go into Dentistry for the money. But Dentistry is tough both physically and mentally. You really need to like it and feel passionate about it. If you don’t, I would suggest that you do something different. It will work out better for you and for patients. I am lucky that after almost 45 years I still love what I do.

What does real work-life harmony look like for you these days?

This “harmony” is an ever changing thing and I am not sure that it is ever truly “harmony.” In the beginning of my career it leaned heavily toward work over anything else. Then when I had children I worked less and spent more time with my family. As my children got older, I worked more but still had plenty of time with family. As they started their own lives I went back to working more than anything else. But these days, as my clinical career winds down, I am making more time for passion projects. Because I had made the decision to spend more time with family while my children were young, I did not make as much money as many of my peers. I have never regretted my decision, especially since I lost my older son. You can never make up that time. I also never burned out, which sometimes happens when it is all work for a very long time.

Who would you love to have lunch with (living or passed), and what would you ask them?

I would do anything to have lunch with my older son who died. He would be chomping at the bit to tell me all about what it’s like on the other side.

What’s your walk-on stage anthem—the song that pumps you up?

The walk-on song that I have used is not a well known one. It is called “I Believe” by the Adam Ezra Group. It is about the power of one and how incredibly powerful one voice can be. Every movement starts with one person and one idea.

What’s one guilty pleasure that always brings you joy (no guilt allowed!)?

I am a firm believer that ice cream makes anything better!

Dr. Desirée Walker

Dentist, Practice Owner, and Founder of Femme STRONG

Femme STRONG and Lumber River Dental femmestrongfit.com @femmestrongfit

What’s your favorite part of the work you do, and why does it light you up?

What lights me up most is confidence transformation in both of my worlds.

Outside of dentistry, in my business Femme STRONG, I love watching women’s confidence rise as their health improves, they trust themselves again, and they realize what they’re truly capable of.

In dentistry, it is the same kind of transformation. When you change someone’s smile, you often see their whole presence change. They carry themselves differently. That shift is powerful, and it never gets old.

How do you personally define success—and how do you know when you’ve hit it?

Success to me is alignment. It is when my values, energy, and actions all match. It is also about having fun and genuinely enjoying what I do.I know I’ve hit it when I feel fulfilled, energized, and present, and when my work is creating real impact in other people’s lives - whether it be dentistry or coaching

What’s one challenge you’ve faced in your career, and how did you overcome it?

One of my biggest challenges happened in dental school when I developed severe neck and back pain that almost made me drop out. It was physically exhausting and mentally defeating, and I seriously questioned whether I could keep going.

That struggle ended up becoming a turning point. It led me into my own healing journey and pushed me to explore movement, strength training, and athletic performance in a deeper way. That path eventually took me to American Ninja Warrior and shaped so much of what I teach today about movement, health, and resilience.

What once felt like a breakdown became the foundation of my mission.

What’s your go-to way to reset when you’re having a rough day?

My go-to reset is always movement. Always.

If I need to shift my energy fast, I move my body. A quick stretch, bodyweight squats, push-ups, hanging from a bar, or even a short walk can change my state almost immediately.

Movement is my fastest reset because it gets me out of my head and back into my body.

What advice would you give someone starting their journey in your field today?

Be open to the limitless possibilities of what you can do. The path does not have to be straight.

Follow your passions, trust your evolution, and give yourself permission to build a career that reflects who you really are. I never imagined I could blend dentistry and fitness in one career, but that integration became one of the most meaningful parts of my work and purpose.

What does real work-life harmony look like for you these days?

Harmony looks like getting great sleep, not feeling rushed, and having space for creative ideas to flow. It looks like having time to take care of myself, train consistently, care well for my patients, and still make meaningful impact through my work.

When my energy is supported, everything else works better.

What’s your walk-on stage anthem—the song that pumps you up?

Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” by C+C Music Factory - 1990. Such epic 90s beat - cant help but be happy and move your body

What’s one guilty pleasure that always brings you joy (no guilt allowed!)?

My favorite joy ritual is snuggling on the couch with my husband and our three fur babies, my dog Porter and my cats Jones and Sheeva.

Give me warm blankets, a fire going, and all of us piled together, and I am in heaven. I love my animals dearly, and they bring me so much joy.

lynne leggett

Founder & CEO

Victory Dental Management victorydentalmanagement.com

IG: @bballcoach12 linkedin lynne-leggett-17173614

What’s your favorite part of the work you do, and why does it light you up?

Being able to have a positive impact on someone else’s life is a gift and a privilege. Witnessing a doctor (s) and team accomplish and grow more than they ever thought they could lights me up every time and keeps my fire lit!

Tell us about a woman who’s deeply influenced your life or career. What did she teach you?

That would be my Nana, my mother’s mom. She was born in 1921 and lived to be over 100. She worked outside the home when it was not “the fashionable thing to do.” She had an entrepreneurial spirit before that word was ever coined. Nana was a creative problem solver due to the economic necessity of the times, and established businesses she managed all while working her normal 9-5 for the phone company. For the last 25 years of her life, she was legally blind with macular degeneration. She could have stopped living and wallowed in self-pity, but that was never her style. She powered on and modeled to me that you always have a choice to make when you find an obstacle. Nana was always supportive of my career changes, especially when my children were born, and I needed more flexibility. She didn’t fully understand what I did as the founder and CEO of Victory Dental Management, but that didn’t stop her from being proud of my accomplishments.

What advice would you give someone starting their journey in your field today?

Take the Gallup Strengths test and understand your top 5 so you can build your business around your strengths. Talk to others who are currently working in the area you want to work

in and ask questions. Most people want to focus on too many things in the beginning, so keep narrowing down how you want to work with clients. Be able to understand why and answer the question: Who is your ideal client?

What does real work-life harmony look like for you these days?

Right now, every day is a little different. My mother’s health is declining, and that requires me to be extra organized with my time. I do not travel unless I need to, and I am very diligent about blocking my client time and family time. This has been a great lesson for a recovering type A perfectionist, though, lol. I have learned it is alright to change things up and gain a new perspective on what is most important.

What’s a quote or personal motto that keeps you grounded or inspired?

“You can’t always control what happens, but you can control how you handle it.” Pat Summitt

What movie or TV show always makes you laugh no matter how many times you’ve seen it?

The Princess Bride or Sixteen Candles

What’s the most meaningful gift you’ve ever received—and what made it so special?

The greatest gift I’ve received is salvation through Jesus Christ. That assurance of forgiveness and eternal hope shapes how I lead, serve others, and navigate life’s challenges.

What inspired you to join the DeW Life community? What called you to become a DeW?

After graduating from college, my career began in a highly male-dominated industry – transportation and logistics, which I dearly loved. The few females at that time viewed each other as competitors only. I had changed careers and had been in the dental industry for years before I met Anne. When I met her, she shared her passion and vision for creating the DeW community, and I knew then I wanted to become a member. Thank you, Anne, for following your passion and purpose!

What are the strengths you lean into most in your life and work?

All of my life, I have always seen things through the lens of a coach. After taking my strengths test, I now understand why. Leaning into my Developer trait, it all makes sense now. It doesn’t matter if I am coaching my basketball teams, my clients, or hanging out with my friends; I am a coach. Those close to me know I will always be there to encourage and support them to be the best they can be.

LIVING YOUR STRENGTHS

WHEN A PROFESSION QUIETLY CHANGES, SOMEONE HAS TO TELL THE STORY

Two years ago, we released a documentary called Women Shaping Dentistry Tomorrow. At the time, it felt like a celebration. Looking back now, it feels more like a responsibility.

Recently, as I prepared to introduce the film again at the DeW-Hinman Women’s Breakfast, I realized something important. The reason this documentary exists has less to do with a single story and everything to do with a shift that has been happening quietly in dentistry for decades.

The Moment We Realized History Was Happening

The original idea for Women Shaping Dentistry Tomorrow began the way many meaningful projects do, through conversation.

Over the years, women in dentistry had been sharing their experiences with me in transparent moments; Stories of leadership earned over time. Stories of being underestimated. Stories of finding ways to succeed in systems that were not originally built with them in mind.

But alongside those conversations was something else. We found data that stopped us in our tracks.

In 1980, women made up roughly 13 percent of dental school graduates. Today, women represent the majority of new dentists, with approximately 56 percent of dental school graduates being female, according to recent data from the American Dental Education Association (ADEA).

That kind of shift does not happen by accident. It happens because women before us endured discomfort,

By Joanna Scott

resistance, and invisibility, and kept going anyway.

At some point, it became clear. This was not just a collection of personal stories. It was a historical turning point; and it deserved to be acknowledged while it was still unfolding.

Choosing How to Tell the Story

At Studio EightyEight, we believe deeply in the power of storytelling. With that belief comes responsibility.

From the beginning, we were intentional about how this documentary would be shaped. While we used cinematic, Industry-standard production tools to tell the story well, we were just as committed to protecting the integrity of the women’s individual stories themselves. Nothing was staged or manufactured. The experiences shared were real, unfiltered, and carried the true cost of progress with them.

There were real questions behind the scenes.

How much do we name the imbalance women have faced? How do we honor difficult experiences without reopening wounds? How do we tell the truth without positioning anyone as a villain?

Ultimately, we chose to frame the antagonist not as a person, but as a system. A system that historically underestimated women, limited opportunity, and discouraged collaboration. We chose to focus on resolve, and the determination it took for women to keep showing up anyway.

LIVING YOUR STRENGTHS

Why This Film Still Matters

Reintroducing Women Shaping Dentistry Tomorrow now, in rooms full of women who have chosen to gather, feels different than it did at the premiere.

The conversation has evolved.

This is no longer just about recognizing pioneers. It is about understanding what responsibility comes with momentum. When a profession changes this dramatically, the question becomes what we do with that progress.

For the women just entering dentistry, the path looks different because someone else paved the way. That does not mean the work is finished. It means it is changing hands.

This documentary was never meant to be a conclusion. It was meant to be a checkpoint.

The Power of Women Gathering on Purpose

There is something profound about women choosing to be in the same room, across generations, roles, and stages of life, to listen to stories that reflect both how far we have come and what still needs care.

The DeW-Hinman Women’s Breakfast was not about replaying a film. It was about continuing a conversation that began long before the cameras ever turned on.

Stories do not just preserve history. They shape what comes next.

This Story Is Not Finished

If Women Shaping Dentistry Tomorrow has taught me anything, it is this. Progress is rarely loud. It is often quiet, relational, and built over time through courage and collaboration.

This documentary exists because women before us chose to endure, and because women today are choosing to lead differently.

Perhaps the most meaningful part of this story is that it is still being written by the women reading this today.

With Gratitude to the Women Who Shared Their Stories

My deepest thanks to Dr. Sharon Parsons, Dr. Fiona Chambers, Anne Duffy, Katherine Eitel Belt, Dr. Sonia Chopra, and Dr. Hazel Glasper for your honesty, courage, and leadership. Your willingness to share your stories

continues to shape what’s possible for women in dentistry and moves the profession forward for generations to come. As this film reaches new audiences of women in dentistry, I’m reminded again and again…gratitude hardly feels like a big enough word.

A Personal Thank You

A special thank you to Tyler Keller, Director of Video at Studio EightyEight, for being my wingman throughout this entire project. Tyler and his team spent countless hours alongside me helping shape the vision, problem-solve in real time, and bring an idea into reality with excellence and care. His producer instincts, technical skill, and steady presence made this film possible. I truly could not have done this without him.

About the Author

Joanna Scott is the Growth Director at Studio EightyEight and the founder of The Story Project podcast, a storytelling platform built for women who lead in dentistry. A behind-the-scenes leader and community builder, she creates space for honest conversation around identity, leadership, and growth.

At Studio EightyEight, the team partners with dental practice owners and industry leaders to pair story-driven creative with performance marketing, helping practices attract the right patients and grow predictably. Learn more at s8e8.com.

YOU DON’T REALIZE YOU’RE A LONE WOLF UNTIL YOU FIND YOUR PACK

By Dr. Whitney D. Weiner

There is a moment I remember clearly.

I was sitting in my office after a long day of decisions. The lights were off except for the one above my desk. Charts used to fill that space. Now it was financial reports, leadership texts, and unresolved conversations. My phone was full of questions — doctors needing input on prescriptions, managers navigating team dynamics, a patient situation requiring my clinical judgment, and an end-of-day review of numbers that carried real weight.

I had made hundreds of decisions that day — financial, strategic, clinical, emotional.

On paper, I was thriving.

Inside, I was exhausted.

And quietly lonely.

Dentistry looks collaborative. We are surrounded by people all day — patients, assistants, hygienists, vendors, team members. We are constantly communicating.

But leadership can still feel isolating.

You carry the weight differently when you are the one signing the checks. When you are ultimately responsible. When you are expected to have the answers.

I didn’t realize how much I felt like a lone wolf until I found my pack.

The Hidden Loneliness of High Achievement

Dentistry attracts high performers. We are driven, disciplined, resilient. We are used to pushing through discomfort.

Somewhere along the way, many of us normalize pressure.

We tell ourselves:

- This is just what leadership feels like.

- This is the cost of growth.

- This is what strong women do.

- We build beautiful practices. We build teams. We build reputations.

- But we don’t always build spaces where we can say:

- This is hard.

- I’m unsure.

- I’m tired of holding it all together.

Loneliness in dentistry doesn’t look like isolation in a cabin in the woods. It looks like smiling through a 12-hour day while quietly wondering if anyone truly understands what you’re carrying.

The most dangerous part is that you don’t even realize how alone you’ve been.

Not until something shifts.

There was a season when, on paper, I had help. A full-time nanny. A supportive husband. A growing team. From the outside, it looked balanced.

But logistical support doesn’t eliminate emotional load. I could outsource calendars. I could delegate tasks. I could extend childcare past dinner when something urgent arose.

What I couldn’t outsource was responsibility.

The decisions still sat with me. The pressure still lived in my chest. The mental load followed me home.

And that was the loneliness I didn’t yet know how to name.

The First Time I Didn’t Feel Alone

The first shift happened when I walked into a room at a DEO meeting.

I didn’t know exactly what I was searching for. I just knew I was craving something I couldn’t articulate. What I found were women building, leading, scaling, and stretching just like I was.

Not competitors.

Not critics.

Not people measuring worth by production.

Women telling the truth.

They spoke about cash flow stress. Associate challenges. Motherhood guilt. Marriage under pressure. Identity shifts. Burnout.

They shared wins too — but not polished ones. Wins layered with doubt, growth, fear, and courage.

For the first time in a long time, my shoulders dropped.

I wasn’t the only one.

That room didn’t change my business overnight. It changed my nervous system.

There is something powerful about being seen by people who understand your pressure — not because you explained it perfectly, but because they’ve lived it.

When the Pack Became Real

Years later, I felt that shift again in a different way.

The first time I sat at the table as part of ICON Dental Partners, I felt something I hadn’t experienced before in my professional life. Relief.

Not because the work became easier.

But because I wasn’t carrying it alone.

There were other doctor-owners wrestling with the same decisions. Other leaders thinking long term. Other entrepreneurs balancing growth, family, and responsibility.

For the first time, conversations weren’t just about surviving the day.

They were about building something together.

That was when I realized I had operated as a lone wolf for years.

Capable. Strong. Independent. But alone.

And I didn’t have to be.

The Happiness Crisis We Don’t Talk About

Success and loneliness can coexist. We just don’t talk about it.

We don’t talk about the emotional weight of entrepreneurship in healthcare.

We don’t talk about how many dentists — especially women — quietly navigate:

• Pressure to produce

• Pressure to lead with warmth

• Pressure to grow

• Pressure to be present at home

• Pressure to “handle it” without complaint

It’s heavy.

And when you carry it alone, it becomes heavier than it needs to be.

The irony is that we are surrounded by people all day, yet many leaders feel emotionally unsupported.

I’ve heard women say:

“I thought I was the only one.”

“I thought something was wrong with me.”

“I thought I should be happier.”

This is the happiness crisis in dentistry. Not a lack of success.

A lack of shared experience.

When you’re a lone wolf, silence feels personal. When you find your pack, you realize the silence was universal.

Why Pack Energy Changes Everything

A lone wolf survives.

A pack thrives.

When you have a pack:

You make braver decisions. You recover from setbacks faster. You normalize hard seasons.

You celebrate wins without guilt. You grow without pretending.

A pack doesn’t remove challenge. It removes isolation.

There is something regulating about sitting across from another leader who says, “Me too.”

It reduces shame.

It reduces fear. It restores clarity.

And most importantly, it restores joy.

Not the performative kind.

The grounded kind.

The kind that comes from alignment.

If You’re Feeling It, You’re Not Crazy

If you’ve ever driven home after a full day of leadership and felt inexplicably heavy…

If you’ve achieved something significant and felt strangely alone in it…

If you’ve wondered why success doesn’t feel the way you imagined…

You are not broken.

You might just be a lone wolf who hasn’t found her pack yet.

And once you do, you will wonder how you ever carried it alone.

I still have hard days.

Doctors still call with clinical questions. Managers still need guidance. Decisions still carry weight.

But I no longer carry it in isolation.

And that has changed everything.

Because the truth is this:

You don’t realize how lonely you’ve been until you sit in a room where you feel understood.

And once you find your pack, you never go back to surviving alone.

About the author:

Dr. Whitney D. Weiner is a periodontist, entrepreneur, and CEO based in Detroit. She serves as Chief Growth Officer and Board Member at ICON Dental Partners and is the founder of a multilocation dental group built on people-first leadership. A mother of three boys and a lifelong student of growth, Whitney is passionate about helping women in dentistry lead with courage, connection, and clarity — because she believes no leader was meant to build alone.

If this resonated, you can learn more at www.thesmilesurgeon. com or follow along at @thesmilesurgeon.

with Anne Du y PODCAST

I AM SO GLAD THAT I CHOSE DENTISTRY

By Dr. Jane C. Puskas, DMD

As a woman who excelled in the sciences, it was assumed I would pursue a premed path. I began studying to become an MD, but quickly realized that dentistry was a better fit for me. Often, I was asked, “Why not be a real doctor?” And I realized—dentistry is real, meaningful and deeply human. It offers the chance to build lifelong relationships with patients, to care for them throughout their lives, and to see firsthand the impact of our work on their health and confidence. Choosing dentistry was not just a career decision—it was a decision to touch lives.

I love caring for my patients, helping them achieve better health, and seeing the transformation a smile can bring. Your path may not always be a straight line—and that’s perfectly okay. My own journey took twists and turns: after graduating from Harvard Dental, I became an associate in my professor’s wonderful downtown Boston practice. I had a mentor who taught me more than I could have learned in any residency. I was poised to take over the practice, but life had other plans, and my husband’s career required us to move.

I practiced with my father-in-law in Toronto, and though I longed to return to the U.S., I now look back on that chapter as a rich and formative time. Challenges often become our greatest opportunities—an important lesson I’ve learned repeatedly. Later, when we moved to Atlanta, I faced a third set of boards and the daunting task of starting anew. With two young children and a newborn,

I took over an existing dental practice. With a busy husband and no local family to help, I relied heavily on my wonderful female colleagues and friends. We supported one another, encouraged involvement in organized dentistry, and together we lifted each other up.

Mentorship and relationships have been pivotal in my journey. My collaboration with Anne Duffy for over 25 years is a testament to the power of women supporting women. Building a strong network is not optional… it is essential! Your network is your net worth. These relationships helped me grow, thrive, and realize that leadership in dentistry is not just about individual achievement; it’s about creating opportunities for others and lifting as we climb.

I am still so glad I chose dentistry. It has allowed me to be the dentist, wife, and mother I aspired to be. It has also provided a platform for leadership. As the first female president of the Hinman Dental Society in 2013, the first female General Chair of the Hinman Dental Meeting in 2017, and now a Hinman Trustee, I am committed to mentoring the next generation, building stronger networks, and redefining leadership in healthcare.

I encourage all women to get involved, attend professional events, and take on leadership roles. Events like the DeW Life Retreat and the Hinman Dental Meeting are more than educational—they are empowering. At the 2026 Hinman Dental Meeting this past March, we partnered

with DeW for the “Celebrating Women in Dentistry” breakfast. Nearly 300 women gathered to connect, share ideas, and celebrate the remarkable impact women have in our profession. We began with a moving documentary by Joanna Scott, chronicling the history of women in dentistry, followed by an inspiring panel of five incredible women sharing their journeys and advice. The energy in the room was palpable, filled with connection, encouragement, and pride.

Dentistry is built on care, precision, and trust; but what makes it truly powerful is the people behind it. Let us continue to celebrate our achievements, uplift one another, and recognize that none of us succeeds alone. Together, we can shape the future of dentistry, one empowered woman at a time. I invite each of you to attend the next gathering, wherever it may be. Because when women support women, we amplify our impact far beyond ourselves.

Women do it best, and I am proud to be part of this unstoppable force!

Celebrating Women in Dentistry Panelists Hinman

Dental Meeting, Atlanta, GA

March 2026

Dr. Aierress Davis

Atlanta Periodontist and brand new Hinman member

•

Dr. Anthea Mazzawi

Board-certified Pediatric Dentist, Hinman member, and current PresidentElect of the Georgia Academy of Pediatric Dentistry

•

About the Author:

Dr. Jane Puskas graduated from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, then went into private practice in Boston where she was also a clinical assistant in the Department of Operative Dentistry and an instructor in the Department of Dental Care Administration.

Her husband’s career in cardiothoracic surgery later took her to Toronto. She practiced dentistry with her father-in-law, while also serving as a visiting research scientist and clinical instructor at the University of Toronto.

Her family later moved to Atlanta where she has since established her own dental practice, specializing in esthetic and restorative dentistry. She and her husband have three grown children, with the youngest daughter becoming a dentist.

Dr. Puskas is very active in organized dentistry. Her largest commitment is with the Hinman Dental Society. In 2013, Dr. Puskas became the first female president of the Hinman Dental Society, and in 2017, she was the first woman general chair of the Hinman Dental Meeting. In 2026, Dr. Puskas was awarded the highest honor in the Hinman Dental Society, the Gold Award, for her contributions above and beyond in her profession.

Dr. Puskas is also a member in the Pierre Fauchard Academy, American College of Dentists, and the International College of Dentists.

Dr. Sonia Chopra

Board-certified Endodontist in Charlotte, NC and an advocate for patient-centered care and education

• Anne Duffy Founder and CEO of Dental Entrepreneur Woman

•

Dr. Sharon Parsons

General Dentist in Columbus, OH, former president of the Ohio Dental Association, and an advocate for opioid awareness and prevention.

STRENGTHS THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS

“All it takes is just a little change of perspective and you begin to see a whole new world.”– Bob Ross

Perspective is defined as a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something — a point of view. In leadership, we talk about it constantly. Shift your perspective. Reframe the challenge. Look at it from another angle. I used to have those conversations with my team almost daily. I understood the concept intellectually. But a few years ago, perspective stopped being theory and became deeply personal. I hit a fork in the road I never saw coming.

I began my career as a dental hygienist, joining a dental organization I deeply believed in. Over time, I grew with the company, transitioning into leadership roles that helped drive expansion from a startup practice to an industry-leading, multi-specialty dental group. For 15 years, I built, developed, launched, and collaborated. I helped lead a go-to-market strategy that scaled a single practice into a six-campus organization in just four years. I was surrounded by a brilliant visionary dentist and an aligned leadership team. It was a highlight of my career and every day I felt part of something significant.

I was certain it would be my “ride or die” career. My plan was to grow with the company until I retired.

During our growth phase, we recognized the need for investors to grow at a pace we were striving for. In that process, we merged with a DSO.

With that merger came unexpected change. My role shifted. Our leadership team was dismantled.

By Stacey Sloan

Our business operating system changed. Vision blurred. Confidence wavered. There was heartbreak, uncertainty, and a lingering feeling of being completely stuck.

For the first time in my career, I didn’t know what was next and this was not something I had even thought about. I was no longer leading from certainty — I was surviving in ambiguity.

During that season, I reached out to a dear friend and colleague to discuss my reality and how it was affecting me. She had experience with CliftonStrengths and recommended I take the assessment. I decided to take it, hoping it might offer clarity. I knew something needed to change, but I didn’t yet know what.

More importantly, I realized I needed to understand what fulfilled me — not what looked impressive, not what others thought I should do, not what I had always done. I needed to determine what I wanted next.

I took the assessment in the middle of that uncertainty.

My Top 5 strengths emerged: Significance, Relator, Individualization, Responsibility, and Belief.

I remember sitting at my desk reading the report. I underlined phrases. I nodded at certain descriptions.

And yet… I felt nothing.

The words didn’t land. They felt distant, almost like they described someone else. I didn’t feel clarity. I felt exhausted and unsure.

Looking back, I understand why.

Clarity rarely lands when survival is your primary focus.

When you are bracing for impact, you don’t have the capacity to internalize insight. I had the language of my strengths — but not the perspective to see myself in them.

For years, that report sat on my desk. I would glance at it occasionally, hoping something would click. But I was still too deep in the storm.

Eventually, everything shifted.

I stepped away from my corporate leadership role and in 2025 I decided to launch my own leadership coaching business. The pressure to fit into someone else’s mold disappeared. I had space. And with space came clarity.

In November 2025, at my first DeW Retreat in Charlotte, I picked up the report again.

This time, I was ready.

Reading the results years later felt entirely different. I wasn’t defensive. I wasn’t bracing. I wasn’t trying to prove anything. I was grounded. And for the first time, I didn’t just see words — I saw myself.

Significance no longer felt like ego or status. It felt like impact. I am wired to do meaningful work that moves people and organizations forward. When I’ve been in roles that restricted that impact, I felt constrained and frustrated. Now I understand why.

Relator explained why surface-level leadership environments drained me. I am built for depth, trust, and authentic connection. Titles don’t energize me — relationships do.

Individualization affirmed something I had always done instinctively. I notice nuances in people. I see strengths and motivations that might go unseen by others. I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all leadership. Understanding this gave me permission to lead — and now coach — in a way that honors uniqueness.

Responsibility helped me make sense of the weight I’ve carried throughout my career. I take ownership seriously — sometimes to a fault. In the wrong environment, that can feel heavy. In the right one, it becomes stewardship.

And Belief anchored everything. My leadership has always been values-driven. When my values were misaligned with organizational culture, I felt unsettled and questioned myself. Now I recognize that alignment isn’t optional for me — it’s essential.

The first time I read my strengths, I saw descriptors. The second time, I saw alignment. I wasn’t failing. I wasn’t lacking capability. I was misaligned. That shift in perspective changed everything.

Today, as a coach and strategist, I live into these strengths intentionally. I approach each leader as uniquely wired. I create space for responsibility without overwhelm. I anchor conversations in values. And I pursue meaningful impact — not for recognition, but because it is how I’m built.

What I’ve learned is this: timing matters.

You can receive feedback, take an assessment, or hear truth about yourself — but if you are in survival mode, you may not be able to integrate it. The same insight can land in radically different ways depending on your season.

Sometimes growth isn’t about becoming someone new. Sometimes it’s about finally seeing who you’ve been all along. For women in dentistry — especially those navigating transitions, mergers, growth, or leadership shifts — this lesson is powerful. If you’ve felt out of place… If you’ve questioned your direction… If you’ve wondered whether you were the problem…

It may not be that you lack ability. It may be that your strengths haven’t yet been fully understood — or fully honored.

Revisiting yourself with curiosity and openness can unlock clarity you didn’t have before. It changes the lens through which you see challenges, relationships, and opportunities. It allows you to stop carrying leadership alone. It allows you to stop squeezing into molds that were never meant for you.

When I look back at the woman navigating that merger, I see someone capable and committed — but operating in survival mode. The woman reading that same strengths report years later is aligned, intentional, and empowered.

The strengths didn’t change. My perspective did. And sometimes, that small shift is all it takes to see an entirely new world.

About the author:

Stacey Sloan is a Dental Leadership Strategist, founder of Chairside Collaborative, and an authority on organizational identity, culture, and leadership within dentistry. With 25 years of experience spanning clinical practice, executive leadership, and operational strategy, she helps dentists and leadership teams build identity-driven organizations that scale with clarity, accountability, and operational excellence. Her work focuses on aligning culture, leadership development, team dynamics, and systems design so practices can grow sustainably without sacrificing standards of care or team health. Through a strengthsbased lens, Stacey is known for helping dental organizations move beyond surface-level fixes to create lasting transformation from the inside out.

WHAT A TWENTYYEAR CELEBRATION REVEALED ABOUT SUCCESS, SISTERHOOD, AND BECOMING

The Room That Held Twenty Years

As I stood up to give my speech at my twenty-year celebration, I looked out into the crowd and had one of those rare moments when time seemed to collapse in on itself. In one room were people from the very beginning of my journey and people who are part of my life now. I saw my realtor, who helped me secure the space for my practice, some of my first team members, my partner and associate doctors, referring doctors, my current team, patients, dental reps, community partners, my husband, my kids, my parents, Anne, Beverly, Malika, and so many of the women from DeW. It felt surreal. For a moment, I was not just looking at a celebration. I was looking at twenty years of life, leadership, courage, growth, and support reflected back to me all at once.

I had expected to feel proud that night. I had expected gratitude, nostalgia, maybe even disbelief at how quickly time had passed. I expected to think about what had been built, what had changed, and what had endured since I first opened the doors as a young, entrepreneurial doctor with a big vision and a deep desire to create something meaningful. And I did feel all of those things. But what moved me most was something deeper. It was the realization that this milestone was never just about the practice. It was about the people who had been part of the journey, the seasons that had shaped me, and the woman I had become along the way.

That moment stayed with me because it reminded me that success is never as individual as we sometimes

By Dr. Valerie Woo

make it out to be. Yes, entrepreneurship requires vision, grit, sacrifice, and an enormous amount of personal responsibility. But when I looked out into that room, I was reminded that no meaningful twenty-year journey is built alone. It may begin with one person taking a risk, but it is sustained by relationships, belief, community, and people who show up at just the right moments over time.

What I Thought Success Would Feel Like

When I opened the doors, I think I viewed success the way many of us do in our younger years. You set a goal. You work hard. You stay focused. You keep going. You imagine that one day all of your effort will lead to a feeling of arrival. You think there will be a point when you can finally exhale and say, I made it. I did it. Now I can rest in that.

But twenty years has taught me that success rarely feels like arrival.

It feels much more like becoming.

It is shaped in the ordinary, unseen moments that no one claps for. It is built in the hard seasons, in the long days, in the moments when you keep showing up even when life feels full and your heart is being pulled in many directions. It is forged in the private decisions that require courage, in the moments you lead before you feel fully ready, and in the steady commitment to keep growing into the woman your work requires you to become.

When I started out, I knew how to work hard. I knew how to care deeply. I knew how to serve. I knew how to

keep moving. What I did not yet know was that building a practice would also build me. It would shape my resilience, deepen my leadership, humble me, stretch me, and ask me to evolve again and again, not just professionally, but personally.

The Woman Behind the Milestone

Over the years, I have evolved into many versions of myself inside this journey. I have been the young entrepreneur eager to prove herself. I have been the leader learning how to build a team, not just perform at a high level herself. I have been the mother navigating the demands of work and home, often holding both at the same time with no perfect formula. I have been the woman learning that strength is not always about pushing harder, but about becoming wiser, steadier, softer in some places, and stronger in others.

That is why this celebration felt so layered for me. Yes, it was a milestone. Yes, it honored two decades of caring for children and families, building something meaningful in my community, and creating a place that has touched so many lives. But it was also a reflection point. It gave me a chance to stand still long enough to take in not just what I had created, but who I had become while creating it.

We do not talk about that enough as women. We talk about the wins, the growth, the outcomes, the visible markers of success…and we should. Those things matter. But behind every meaningful milestone is a woman who has had to keep becoming. A woman who has had to make difficult decisions, carry heavy responsibility, lead

through uncertainty, support others while still trying to stay connected to herself, and keep evolving through seasons that changed her.

That is the deeper story I felt that night. I was not just celebrating twenty years of work. I was standing inside twenty years of becoming.

Why Sisterhood Matters

One of the most meaningful parts of that evening was the presence of so many women from DeW. Their being there meant so much to me, not simply because they came to celebrate, but because they understood what that celebration represented. There is something profoundly powerful about being seen by women who know the cost of the climb. Women who understand the tension of ambition and caregiving, the beauty and loneliness of leadership, the pressure of carrying vision, and the reality that success often asks more of you than anyone on the outside realizes.

Sometimes “women supporting women” can sound like a phrase we toss around because it is familiar and easy to say. But this reminded me that it is much more than that. It is a lived experience. It is showing up. It is bearing witness. It is honoring the unseen parts and the heart behind the milestone, not just the milestone itself.

What I felt from those women was not admiration from a distance. It was understanding. And to be understood in a moment like that feels like such a blessing. It reminds you that your journey has not only been productive, but meaningful. That what you built created more than

results. It created relationships. It created impact. It created connection.

I think that is one reason these kinds of communities matter so much. Entrepreneurship can sometimes train us to believe we always have to be the strong one, the capable one, the one holding it all together. But there is real power in letting yourself be supported too. There is power in allowing other women to celebrate you, encourage you, and say, without needing a long explanation, We see what this took. We see who you have become.

What Legacy Means to Me Now

This milestone also made me think about legacy in a different way. Not just the legacy of what I built professionally, but the legacy of how I have lived, led, and loved along the way. How I have treated people. How I have shown up in hard seasons. How I have encouraged other women. How I have made room to celebrate others, not just myself.

Because after enough years, you start to realize that the most meaningful success is not simply found in what you built, but in how you built it. In whether your ambition stayed connected to your values. In whether your excellence still made room for humanity. In whether the life you built still feels aligned with the woman living it.

And maybe that is part of what this season of life is teaching me too. Reaching a milestone like this naturally makes you look back, but it also makes you look inward. It makes you think about rhythm, presence, identity, and what matters most now. It makes you ask not only, What have I built? but also, Who am I now? and How do I want to keep living and leading from here?

To me, that is part of becoming too.

What the Celebration Gave Back to Me

If I could say one thing to my younger self, it would not be work harder. It would not be do more. It would be this: let people show up for you. Let them encourage you. Let them celebrate you. Let them support you before you think you have fully earned it. Let yourself receive the care and kindness you so freely give to everyone else.

That may have been the most meaningful gift of this entire celebration. Not simply the chance to honor twenty years, but the chance to really feel the moment. To receive it. To be held by it. To recognize that one of the greatest gifts of a long entrepreneurial journey is not just what you build, but the people who gather around you and say, We see you. We honor this. And we are celebrating with you.

When I think back to that moment in my speech, looking out into the crowd and seeing so many chapters of my life gathered into one room, I still feel that same sense of wonder. It was surreal, yes. But more than that, it was clarifying. It reminded me that the real gift was never just the milestone itself.

It was who I became on the way there.

About the author:

Dr. Valerie Woo is an entrepreneur, pediatric dentist, speaker, mom of four, and founder of Valerie Woo Consulting. She founded NOVA Pediatric Dentistry & Orthodontics in 2006 and grew it into a premier multi-doctor practice known for its exceptional patient experience and servant leadership. Today, she is passionate about helping women grow with purpose, lead with intention, and build businesses and lives that reflect what matters most through speaking, mentorship, and consulting in this next season.

Dr. Valerie Woo

Website: www.drvaleriewoo.com

Instagram: @drvaleriewoo

Facebook: @drvaleriewoo

LinkedIn: @drvaleriewoo

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PRECISION WITHOUT PAIN: WHY I TRADED CLINICAL COMFORT FOR INNOVATION

In the dental operatory, we are trained to be the ultimate shape-shifters. For more than 30 years, I moved through my clinical days carrying a quiet, persistent weight, both literally and figuratively. Like so many of my peers, I accepted chronic neck strain and clunky, tethered battery packs as an inevitable “cost of doing business.” I assumed that if industry-standard gear felt heavy or unbalanced, the fault lay in my own physical endurance, rather than a fundamental flaw in the equipment’s design.

After two decades at the chair, I reached a moment of profound clarity: the “innovation” in our field had historically been designed for a frame that wasn’t mine. As women in dentistry, we often find ourselves adapting our bodies to a world of engineering that ignores our ergonomics. This realization was the catalyst for Z-Loupes. It wasn’t just about building a better battery; it was about reclaiming the physical longevity of our careers.

Redefining the Ergonomic Arc

My transition from clinician to serial entrepreneur began when I stopped asking, “How do I use this?” and started asking, “Why was it built this way?” Standard battery packs are notoriously bulky, creating a leverage point that pulls relentlessly on the neck and shoulders. After years in practice, these seemingly small ergonomic flaws compound into physical exhaustion and, eventually, injury.

I began sketching a vision for a device that felt like an extension of the body rather than an external burden. Drawing inspiration from the sleek, contoured architecture of high-end neck speakers, I envisioned a

By Dr. Zina Berry

battery pack that was lightweight and ergonomically shaped to distribute weight evenly across the shoulders. This design allows us to remain focused on the procedure at hand without the distracting need to adjust heavy, poorly balanced equipment.

The Touchless Revolution

As I moved from the treatment room to the design lab, the global landscape shifted. The pandemic forced every practitioner to re-evaluate hygiene and efficiency. It wasn’t enough to make equipment lighter; we had to make it smarter.

This led to our most significant breakthrough: the introduction of the first smart, gesture-controlled surgical loupes. This innovation wasn’t born in a vacuum; it was informed by over 60 “Maven” interviews and rigorous mentorship through Launch NY. We developed a system that allows doctors to operate and adjust their lighting without ever breaking the sterile field. Being named the 2025 NYS “Champion of Innovation” was a humbling validation of this journey, but seeing that first neck battery pack come to life was the true reward. It was a reminder that we don’t have to wait for “big tech” to notice our discomfort, we have the clinical insight to build the solutions ourselves.

Architecting the Future

Building a tech company in the dental space has been a masterclass in resilience. My “why” has remained unwavering: Z-Loupes exists to ensure that the next

Today, this journey represents a shift from being a passive consumer of dental technology to being an active architect of it. To my fellow dental entrepreneurs: your clinical frustrations are not “complaints”, they are the blueprints for your next great contribution. When we stop adapting to poor design, we start inventing the future.

Empowering Ergonomic Vision in Dentistry

About the author:

Dr. Zina Berry is a dentist with over 30 years of clinical experience and the Founder and CEO of Z-Loupes INC.. A serial entrepreneur and the 2025 NYS “Champion of Innovation,” she created the first smart, gesture-controlled surgical loupes to eliminate occupational pain for clinicians.

Social Media Handles

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Instagram: @z.loupes

LinkedIn: Z-Loupes Inc.

Twitter: @Z_Loupes

TikTok: @zloupes.inc

I STOPPED SHRINKING FOR PEOPLE WHO NEEDED ME SMALL

By Leslie Espinola

Iremember standing in a hallway after a meeting, my stomach in knots, wondering how I had become so small. By that time, I had spent 30 years building a career in dentistry, fifteen of those chairside, twenty in leadership roles across DSOs, urgent care, and community health organizations. I knew this industry. I had helped practices grow, developed teams, created systems that worked. And yet, in that moment, I felt like I knew nothing at all. That’s what happens when you work for someone who needs you to be small so they can feel big.

The Slow Erosion

I’ve worked for incredible leaders in my career, people who lifted me up, championed my ideas, and pushed me to grow in ways I never expected. But I’ve also worked for leaders who did the opposite. The ones who took credit for wins and assigned blame for losses. The ones who made me question my own judgment until I stopped trusting myself. The ones who fit the textbook definition of a narcissist, charming to the outside world, corrosive behind closed doors.

What I didn’t understand then, but understand now, is how gradual it happens. No one wakes up one day and decides to shrink. It happens one dismissed idea at a time. One eye roll in a meeting. One passive-aggressive email copied to people who didn’t need to be involved. One conversation where your expertise is questioned by someone with far less of it. Over time, you start editing yourself before you even speak. You stop volunteering insights. You stop trusting your instincts. You become a shadow of the professional you worked to develop over the years.

For me, the hardest part wasn’t the criticism or the micromanagement, it was the isolation. Narcissistic leaders are skilled at making you feel like you’re the problem. They create environments where speaking up feels risky, where alliances feel dangerous, where you start to wonder if maybe everyone else sees something wrong with you that you can’t see yourself. And when you finally leave, you often become the convenient explanation for everything that goes wrong after you’re gone.

The Weight of Walking Away

I wish I could tell you that leaving those situations brought immediate relief. It didn’t. What came instead was a complicated mix of freedom and doubt. Freedom because I was no longer navigating someone else’s emotional volatility. Doubt because I had spent so long being told, subtly and not so subtly, that I wasn’t good enough. That kind of messaging doesn’t disappear the moment you hand in your resignation.

Recovery from a diminishing work environment is real work. It took me time to stop flinching when I shared an idea, waiting for it to be shot down. It took me time to stop over-explaining every decision, defending myself before anyone had even questioned me. It took me time to remember that my three decades of experience actually meant something and that I had earned my seat at the table and not because of anyone else’s approval.

What helped me most was recognizing that I wasn’t alone. When I finally started talking to other women in our industry about these experiences, I discovered how common they were. So many of us had stories. So many

of us had lost time and confidence to leaders who needed us diminished. And so many of us had found our way back to ourselves, stronger, wiser, and more intentional about the kind of environments we would accept going forward.

What the Hard Seasons Taught Me

Here’s what I know now that I wish I had known then: the fact that someone dims your light says nothing about your light. It says everything about their darkness. People who need to make others small are fighting their own battles, battles that have nothing to do with your competence, your value, or your potential. Understanding this doesn’t excuse their behavior, but it does help you stop taking it personally.

I also learned that my instincts were right all along. Every time I felt that something was off, it was. Every time my gut told me a decision was wrong, it usually was. The problem wasn’t my judgment, it was that I had stopped trusting it. Now, I treat that inner voice like the asset it is. When something feels wrong, I pay attention. When my experience tells me one thing and someone’s ego tells me another, I go with my experience.

Most importantly, I learned what kind of leader I never want to be and what kind of leader I want to become. I lead from the heart now. I listen more than I speak. I actively seek out the smartest people in the room and make sure they know they’re valued. I never want anyone who works with me to feel the way I felt standing in that hallway, questioning everything they’d built.

For Every Woman Who Feels Invisible

If you’re reading this and something resonates, if you’ve felt dismissed, diminished, or gaslit in your professional life, I want you to hear something clearly: it’s not you. Your expertise is real. Your contributions matter. Your voice deserves to be heard without fear of retaliation or ridicule.

The dental industry needs women who lead boldly, who speak up, who refuse to make themselves smaller for someone else’s comfort, and who refuses to be that person to others. We need each other. We need to share our stories so that the woman who’s currently sitting in that toxic environment knows she’s not crazy, she’s not incompetent, and she’s not alone. We need to create spaces where women can rise without someone trying to push them back down.

And for those of you who have made it through to the other side, who have rebuilt your confidence and found environments that honor your gifts, we need you to reach

back. Mentor someone. Share your story. Be the leader you wish you’d had. Every woman we lift up makes our entire industry stronger.

The Light Was Always There

Today, I get to do work that fills me up. I coach dental leaders, support practice owners, and help teams find their rhythm. I speak about leadership and development and the kind of culture that brings out the best in people. I finally feel like myself again, actually, a better version of myself. Stronger. Clearer. More compassionate.

The difficult seasons didn’t break me; they refined me. They taught me what matters and what doesn’t. They showed me who I wanted to become. And they gave me a mission: to help create workplaces where no one has to shrink, where every voice is valued, where leadership means lifting others up instead of holding them down.

Your light is still there, even if someone has tried to dim it. It’s been there all along, waiting for you to reclaim it. The world and this industry needs what only you can offer. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.

About the Author

Leslie is the Founder of High Peak Dental Advisors LLC and a fractional COO and executive coach with the Dentist Entrepreneur Organization (DEO). With 35 years in the dental industry, she now helps practices build thriving teams and sustainable growth. Leslie is also a keynote speaker focused on leadership development, team retention, and customer service excellence.

FROM “DARK SPOT” TO DEFINING A LEGACY: A DECADE OF RESILIENCE

By Amber Young

In early 2015, I was a 35-year-old mother who walked into a practice with a $99 new-patient coupon. I wasn’t there for a life-saving intervention; I was there to check a routine errand off my list. But that day, a diligent dental team performed a panoramic X-ray and a VELscope screening that revealed a “dark spot”. It turned out to be a tumor the size of a golf ball growing inside my right mandible.

That moment didn’t just change my dental chart; it changed the trajectory of my life

The diagnosis was Clear Cell Odontogenic Carcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer with fewer than 80 recorded cases worldwide. The statistics were grim: a 95% recurrence rate and no known survivors past the five-year mark. Because this cancer is resistant to chemotherapy and radiation, my only path forward was radical surgery.

I walked out of that appointment feeling entirely alone. There was no support group, no established roadmap, and very little research to guide me.

When faced with a 20-hour surgery to remove my right mandible from ear to chin, I was given a choice for the donor site: my fibula or my scapula. My son had just turned one and was learning to walk. I chose my shoulder because I refused to lose my mobility. I told myself that even if I struggled to eat or speak, I wanted to be able to walk beside my children.

I met a notary in a parking lot to sign my last will and testament, knowing that without this surgery, I’d be planning my funeral instead. I emerged from that procedure with 51 staples in my shoulder and a multiyear, $95,000 reconstruction plan ahead of me. Truly, I

could not have asked for a better medical and dental collaboration than what I received. I was blessed with amazing practitioners that cared deeply for their patients and the quality of life that they had after recovery. Not having any dental knowledge and being guided to do all the “right things” that supported my future livelihood is priceless. The road ahead was uncharted and never ending. I lost myself in the data, creating my strategy to survive. I wanted so badly to have a roadmap to success, but ultimately had to create my own. My curiosity served me well, as I discovered new ways to move forward, cope, adapt, and take it all in stride. I learned quickly to create boundaries that respected my space. I retreated inward to heal my soul, strengthen my body, and make peace with my reality.

Cancer rarely changes your life for the better, but for me, it provided a “pivot moment”. I am now 10 years out from my diagnosis, far exceeding the initial five-year survival odds. I refused to limit my beliefs based on a statistics sheet.

During this decade of growth, I have:

• Become a certified Life/Health Coach and Personal Trainer to better understand disease prevention and lifestyle management.

• Served as a Key Opinion Leader (KOL) on Oral Cancer within the dental industry. Sharing my story on stage and in practice to help increase screenings, ultimately leading to earlier detection.

• Dedicated my time to coaching newly diagnosed patients and their families to ensure they never feel as alone as I did. Offering hope in the darkest of times.

My experience led me to co-found Saving Face, a 501(c) (3) non-profit dedicated to transforming oral cancer advocacy. We are focused on:

• The 1 million Screening Movement: Mobilizing practices nationwide through our “Shine A Light” event every April to reach one million screenings by partnering with DSO’s and dental practices nationally.

• The Power of Storytelling: Producing a docuseries to capture the raw, human experience of this disease from diagnosis to recovery. Highlighting the experiences and emotions patients go through when faced with an oral cancer diagnosis and treatment.

• Proactive Education: Closing the gap between clinical detection and patient awareness through educational programs and creating resources for patients.

I am only here because an office manager was persistent enough to follow up with me and a clinical team was diligent enough to offer a screening. You aren’t just cleaning teeth or managing a practice; you are the first line of defense. Oral Cancer is now one of the world’s most rapidly growing cancers. This year alone it is estimated that over 60,000 new cases of oral cancer will be diagnosed.

The earlier we detect this disease, the better the survival rate and—more importantly—the better the quality of life after treatment. Don’t just be practitioners; be proactive crusaders. You may just save someone’s face today, and in doing so, save their life.

About the author:

Amber Young is an oral cancer survivor, Key Opinion Leader (KOL), and the co-founder of Saving Face, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to oral cancer advocacy and early detection. After defying a rare terminal diagnosis in 2015, she now spends her time coaching newly diagnosed patients and mobilizing the “1 Million Screening Movement” within the dental industry. A certified Life/Health Coach and personal trainer, she is committed to ensuring that every dental visit has the potential to be a life-saving event.

WHERE CONVERSATIONS ARE HARVESTED AND CONNECTIONS GROW

Dearest DeW ,

Dental Conference season doesn’t start with the registration email or the travel itinerary.

It starts with the shoes.

You know the pair. The ones that can survive miles of convention center carpet, long exhibit halls, and the occasional sprint between lectures or when you realize your next meeting is on the opposite side of the building.

Conference season has its own rhythm in dentistry. For large-scale dental meetings, we get a kick off of sorts with Greater New York. Off to Yankee and Chicago Midwinter, and as I write this column, the DeWs are planting their seeds at Hinman in Atlanta in a desire to learn, grow, and recharge.

On paper, these meetings are all about education, CE credits, speakers, and innovation.

But anyone who attends even one of these meetings learns something faster than the grass grows in the Spring:

The most powerful Growth Moments never appear on the agenda.

Spring: We Plant

Every conference begins with the energy of spring.

For those new to conference season, walking into spaces and places that are unfamiliar can often be overwhelming but also exciting at the same time. For conference veterans, some feel like it’s coming “home” or at least visiting your favorite aunt’s house with all of your crazy cousins. Others may be “butterflies” having been out of the scene for some time and are ready to emerge with

By Beverly Wilburn

new ventures into a blossoming business world again.

Anticipation is in the air. Familiar faces appear across hotel lobbies. Someone shouts your name from across the hallway and suddenly the year’s first hug from an industry friend reminds you why these meetings matter; why you being here matters. They remind you why you took the time to pack the comfy shoes.

One never miss conference moment is a DeW meetup, beautifully coordinated by Aimee Vail

Aimee is a master at orchestration. If you’ve ever seen her wave her DeWdrop magic wand over 30+ women, keeping a sponsor promise fulfilled, a neighboring exhibitor content, the noise-level contained to a slightly less raucous roar, and somehow gain one rather beautiful snapped cellphone photo, you just might have witnessed the Spring Awakening. Behind the scenes she’s managing logistics, but what she’s really creating is a space where women in dentistry feel welcomed and can connect.

Conversations spark.

Introductions happen.

Someone new suddenly realizes they’ve found their people.

That’s the conference springtime vibe.

Summer: We Nurture

The keynote takes the stage and conference season shifts into summer mode. Fast-paced, energetic, and industry parties by night.

The exhibit floor buzzes. Hallways chirp with animated conversations. Everyone is moving at the speed of “I have three meetings and two lectures in the next hour.”

Meaningful moments can still happen in even the quickest interactions.

Leaving an after-hours event and heading into the freezing rain and snow at Chicago Midwinter this year, I locked eyes with Machell Hudson-Hoover. Having been at the same busy industry meetup for two hours, we never connected to chat but somehow walking out into the night sky, she heading to one obligation and I to another, her smile, her warmth, and her commitment to lifting others up in dentistry came through. It was a no-frills, one-second “Hi” and “Bye” and it was a soft reminder that no matter where you are coming from or where you are going, there is always going to be a DeW nearby to offer a hello and to share the experience.

Fall: We Harvest

The most valuable conversations happen in the hallway.

You know the moment. Heading to your next session you suddenly spot someone you haven’t seen in months. The handshake, hug, or high-five and the conversation shifts. Family life, practice life, client woes, and product launches fill the space. The spigot opens wide on the garden hose of business in the best kind of way.

I was reminded of this reading a social thread by Vanessa Vitagliano. It was a simple photo of four people, packaged in a snapshot hallway selfie with the caption “Once you’re in the dental industry… you don’t really leave. You might switch companies. Take a different role. Chase a new opportunity. But the people? They don’t go anywhere.”

Vanessa’s words along with her knowledge, tremendous leadership, and insight to the dental industry gave voice to the cadence of hallway connections at dental conferences.

We talk about leadership. Growth. Movement.

The real-world challenges behind running successful dental businesses.

These conversations remind me that the best learning at conferences happens between professionals who understand the journey.

Winter: We Share

The flight home is finally booked. The comfortable shoes are packed away and ready to retire. Now we can be grateful for all that we gained.

The venue mattered. The education mattered. The innovations mattered.

But what remains with us the longest are the connections.

The hallway conversations and the hugs. Introductions that turn into friendships.

The relationships built at conferences and retreats show up in powerful business-building ways long after the meeting has ended. I am reminded of this because of Minal Sampat . Though Minal’s shoes are always the most classy and stylish, it is rumored that she sometimes wears the comfortable ones too. She and I first connected several years ago at the inaugural DeW Retreat. Surprisingly, it wasn’t Minal’s shoes that impressed me most, it was actually her perfume! Laughing at this today, it’s absolutely true that a simple whiff of perfume turned into a deep discussion over preconceived notions which today has turned into a trusted business relationship and a heartfelt friendship. In February, Minal took time from her very busy speaker life, working and living between cities, and flew to Chicago, in and out the same day, to speak at my Dental Spouses in Business Conference to share her marketing wisdom and to support our growing community.

Dental meetings are where education happens. But they are also where connection lives. They bring people together who care deeply about dentistry and about each other.

Lean into those connections.

Your network becomes your support system. Your colleagues become collaborators. Your peers become friends.

In dentistry, showing up for each other matters.

Conference season reminds us that this industry is more than procedures and production numbers.

It’s a community.

Allow DeW to continue to teach us:

The most powerful thing we can build in dentistry is a network of women who show up, lift each other, and grow together in every season.

XO, Beverly

About the author: Beverly Wilburn is a proud Dental Entrepreneur Woman and serves as VP of the DeW Advisory Board. This column is Beverly’s opportunity to give back to her cherished DeW community.

If you have an inspiring story to share about how an amazing DeW or a DeW event has impacted your life or business, send an email to Beverly.Wilburn@dew.life.

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