I am proud to serve as the president of the American Association of Women Dentists and as your first Hispanic president. I think we have a special organization for a number of reasons, which I will enumerate shortly.

The past five years have seen the women of our profession step forward and assume many of the most important leadership roles in organized dentistry. Women are serving now as Presidents of most major dental organizations such as the ADA, NDA, HDA and AACD. We have finally turned the corner and are becoming a force in our profession. Frankly, I think that this benefits both dentistry and the public in general.

With women now in the mainstream and making up nearly 40% percent of dental school graduates, some of my colleagues have asked me, “why have a woman’s dental organization at all?” I answer them that the reason women should have their own association is for the same reason we don’t go out shopping with our husbands. However different we may be, there is far more than unites us than divides us. We share a common future and common ground on the issues that matter most in our lives and that of our families.

As women we network, we get along and support each other and more than anyone else understand the challenges we face together as women and as professionals. The relationships we make with other women help us flourish and when women flourish families and communities flourish as well. These are some of the reasons why the AAWD continues to be relevant and, in fact, is thriving.

I will close by stressing my joy in assuming the challenge of leading the AAWD. In turn, I would like to issue several challenges to the membership. First, become involved by volunteering on the AAWD board of directors or by starting a local AAWD chapter in your community if you don’t have one already. Promote the AAWD and the important roles we play as women in dentistry in our community. Every one of you knows a women dentist who is not a AAWD member, so recruit her!

Become a mentor for younger women and share our talent and elevate our visibility as some of the top talents and experts in dentistry. An effective way to do this is to have more women speakers. My personal goal will be to explore ways the AAWD can facilitate the promotion of our members in this role- I’m happy to be a part of it.