January 11, 2022
In the past year, we have learned how valuable our dental services are, how resilient we were in the frontline, and how committed & dedicated we were to our community. As we continue to practice in the times of unknown with new emerging variants, it is important that we uphold our core values and to the ideology of service to our patients.
I am extremely proud of how our Korean-American dental community has grown exponentially in the past 10 years. Our growth has extended to encompass multiple generations of dentists and have shown representation in the communities all across the United States. With this rapid rate of growth, there was more that we needed to do to reach out to new members. Simply put, our organization needed to do more to actively reach out to younger generation of dentists to instill new values of diversity & inclusivity. Our previous leadership’s core values were to focus on upholding tradition, culture, membership retention, and education. All of our predecessors have kept the promises and the core values that we all still uphold amidst all of the changes that we faced as a dental professionals. Now, the time has come to seek change to be more inclusive and to empower younger generation of dentists.
As the President of the Korean American Dental Association, my goal is to continue to maintain our tradition, culture, and core values. In addition, I would like to incorporate our need to create channels of connectivity between different generations of dentists, young & old through professional network and mentorship. Other areas of importance is for us to focus on improving diversity, inclusivity, and empowerment within our organization. In order for us to bridge this gap in our organization, we need to take positive steps forward to listen to everyone: men & women, young & old, students & practitioners, and members & non-members. We also need initiatives from more women and young dentists to take the helm and take on more of a leadership role to be the positive change that we want to see for the future of our organization.
In the upcoming year, I am confident that we will overcome this pandemic as a practice, as a community, and as a nation. Our resolve as dental professionals will continue to show the important role that we provide in improving the oral health in our community. In addition, our new administration will focus on listening and reaching out to different generations of dentists to ensure that their voices are heard and change is in the works.
