ADAWA is in good hands this year, with a diverse and experienced council.
Janina is an oral-medicine specialist and a recent member to the ADAWA council, commencing in 2020. “I nominated for the Federal Councillor position to understand the challenges faced when trying to make changes to improve dental care and oral health awareness in the community at a national level,” she says.
Janina works in private practice, has public placements at Perth Children’s Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and is an adjunct senior lecturer at UWA. She also volunteers at the St Patrick’s clinic and for Healing Smiles.
She says she is passionate about advocating for the provision of dental care to all sectors of the community and to further the promotion of oral health awareness. “Both these factors will ultimately result in the prevention of disease and improvement of quality of life for our community,” she says.
As an ADAWA council member, Janina hopes to continue the advocacy for the promotion and access of quality dental healthcare to all community sectors. “The aging population are one of those sectors which will require increased support,” she says. “I would like to help ADA continue to support oral health campaigns, submissions and research, since this will increase community awareness of oral health issues and their associated impacts.”
Peter graduated from The University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in 1991. He has held positions at Perth Dental Hospital and as an area dental officer responsible for Geraldton school and adult services, and has been the principal dentist at Western Smiles Dental Care in Mirrabooka for 15 years.
Peter is no stranger to the ADAWA council – he has served as an ADAWA councillor since 2011 and was chair of the ADAWA Infection Control Committee.
Peter says he nominated for council because he wanted to bring an element of business understanding from the perspective of a principal dentist to council.
He is also committed to helping council navigate practising dentistry in 2022.
“My focus this coming year is to assist council through the process of allowing dentistry to practice smoothly during the transition of COVID in the community when vaccination rates reach 90% and the State borders open,” he says.
“I would also like to continue to work in the area of building community within general membership and the broader community,” he adds.
Dr Ahmed Saleh graduated from Dental School in 2002. He practiced general dentistry in Cairo for seven years and in Australia for another three years. He spent three years as a Periodontics Registrar at UWA and has been a practising periodontist for seven years.
He has served as a volunteer in numerous dental communities including RACDS (Regional Committee Member), Australian Society of Periodontology (Federal Treasurer) and ASP WA (President, Treasurer and Committee Member). He is also an ADC examiner.
Ahmed says he is looking forward to using his previous experiences to help provide the best support to our dental community.
“I am passionate about any avenue that would allow our WA Dental community to excel in patient care,” he says. “Our physical and mental wellbeing is vital to help us carry out our duties with most efficiency and least stress. I am also interested in continuing education to ensure that we are up-to-date and can provide the finest service to patients in our community.”
Dr Gwen Chin graduated from UWA in 1999 and has been working in private practice since. She is a member of Healing Smiles and is the current UWA Dental Alumni Society President.
“I am passionate about fostering good relations between the students and our alumni and within our entire dental community,” she says.
This is Gwen’s second year on ADAWA council, and she originally nominated because she wanted to be more involved with helping the community.
“My goal is to raise the profile and awareness in our community of OUR community,” she says. “To facilitate the creation of better relationships between our members and increase collegial links between our members.”
Dr Tim Clair has worked as a general dentist since 2010, after completing a Bachelor of Dental Science (Honours) at The University of Western Australia in 2009.
Tim has volunteered with the Kimberley Dental Team since 2012 and has served as an Ordinary Member of Council for ADAWA since November 2019.
He made the decision to nominate for ADAWA council to broaden his involvement in the profession and make a contribution to the work and direction of ADAWA in advocating for dental health and the dental profession. “I am interested in ADAWA’s provision of services to members including medical indemnity insurance and CPD opportunities, the association’s representation on issues such as vertical integration of health funds and oral health initiatives, as well as its role in advocating for volunteerism within the WA dental community,” he says.
“I hope to contribute positively to ADAWA endeavours where the ultimate outcome is ensuring provision of dental care for patients across the community in WA.”
Dr Sahara Saeedi graduated in 2013 and has since worked in private practice. She is the ADAWA Chair of Oral Health Education and an ADAWA council member.
“I nominated for ADAWA council as a voice for the younger cohort of dentists,” she says. “I am passionate about providing opportunities for dentists to increase oral health awareness in the community, in collaboration with the ADAWA media team.”
Iris has a history as a qualified dental nurse and dental therapist before graduating as a dentist from UWA in 1997. Additionally, she has since completed a Post Grad Diploma in Forensic Dentistry.
Iris is the newly elected Country Councillor, and as someone who has worked in Mount Barker as a single operator in her own surgery for almost 24 years, it is clear she will have a great understanding of the issues that are close to our country members.
“I thought it was time to become involved and try to give back to the ADAWA after the many years of support received,” she says.
As a new ADAWA councillor, Iris would like to provide support to country members and make them feel more connected to the ADA, even though they are remotely located.
She would also like to help direct and educate the way general dentists transfer records, so legal documents can be admissible in court when required. “My biggest bug bear is the overall poor record keeping and poor transfer of records, as well as severe shortfalls in computer dental programs that result in inadvertently falsifying dental records,” she says.
Iris is also a Dental Officer with DHS, providing subsidised dental treatment to the aged and disadvantaged. Additionally, she has volunteered for the past 23 years as a board member for a local board that provides independent housing for the aged. “I would love to teach/volunteer, however, I am a little bit far away for regular stints,” she adds. “I am very passionate about providing affordable, sensible and high quality general dental treatment in my community, strongly opposed to the corporate dental surgeries and would love to see under-utilised local hospitals as a facility providing dental treatment under sedation/GA for children in need of extensive work.”
Dr Bec Penco graduated from UWA in 2016; she was awarded the KJG Sutherland prize for most outstanding achievement during the course of the degree and graduated with Distinction. She was the President of the University of Dental Students’ Society and is currently a member of ADAWA’s CPD Committee, the Federal ADA’s Recent Graduate Advisory Panel and the Federal ADA’s Employed Dentist Working Party. She is the Chair of ADAWA’s Recent Graduates committee and helps coordinate ADAWA’s New Practitioner Program (NPP).
Bec is currently working full-time in private practice at Lifetime Dental in Como and is still involved in tutoring dental students. She has always enjoyed being heavily involved in the dental community, and hopes to continue to represent the recent dental graduate cohort on the ADAWA council.
Bec has been on ADAWA’s council for three years, and says it was soon after she graduated that she realised she wanted to help the dental community. “For my first year out of Dental School I was based at OHCWA, so I got to be involved in various committees, including the CPD committee with Jenny Ball,” she recalls. “When I left OHCWA and went into private practice I felt I did not really have the opportunities to mingle, to have a say in things and to be engaged in what was happening in the dental community, so I thought joining ADAWA council would be a good way to do that.”
As someone who is only five years out of Dental School herself, Bec’s focus is to help recent graduates. “I want to support the recent graduates, particularly in the CPD aspects,” she says. Bec explains that the New Practitioner Program (the brainchild of Drs Sean Archibald, Amanda Phoon Nguyen, Greg Crane and Bec) was created in order to provide affordable and relevant CPD to newly graduated dentists.
Dr Patricia Elder is a proud Aboriginal Yindjibarndi/Yamatji woman.
Her professional career in healthcare began in 2012 as a registered nurse, before going on to study a Doctor of Dental Medicine – graduating in 2019.
“I always wanted to return to country and provide dental treatment for my people and the wider Aboriginal community,” she says. “Until recently I lived and worked in Kununurra for Dental Health Services as a remote outreach dentist, which incorporated providing community outreach service delivery to Balgo, Kalumburu, Yuri Yungi and the Aboriginal Medical Services at the Ord Valley Aboriginal Health Service. I have since returned to Perth and taken up the role as Acting Director Aboriginal Health for North Metropolitan Health Service.”
Patricia is part of the Alumni for The Follow the Dream Program, Kurongkurl Katijin, Centre for Indigenous Australian Education and Research at Edith Cowan University and the School of Indigenous Studies at The University of Western Australia.
Patricia is a newly elected ADAWA councillor and decided to nominate for council because of her passion for Aboriginal health and wellbeing. “I strive to achieve a culturally respectful and non-discriminatory health system with equity and equality in the access and delivery of services where my people feel safe, heard, important and their individual needs are met,” she says.
Being a council member, she hopes to help ADAWA:
Educate and inspire other people to aspire to improving health outcomes for Aboriginal people, including creating meaningful and lasting partnerships with individuals, communities and organisations.
Provide appropriate education that is culturally appropriate.
Expand opportunities to strengthen the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce.
Enhance and strengthen the capacity, capability and leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Professional Organisations.
Create a safe place for new Aboriginal health professionals and graduates to develop skills and knowledge to advocate for and deliver culturally
safe healthcare.
Implement strategies in community-based areas, which would see investment and infrastructural works and see community networking and community led initiatives in the planning and design process at state, regional and local levels.
Dr Jenny Ball is an ADAWA Federal Councillor and the Director of Continuing Professional Development at ADAWA – working to develop a world-class WA Dental CPD program. She has been involved with dentistry for nearly 40 years. She has worked in private practice, and has dedicated her time to volunteering and tutoring at the Dental School. Jenny has been on ADAWA council for 13 years, and in that time has served on executive, including as President.
She hopes to provide ongoing support to ADAWA council to support ADAWA members to carry out their profession.
Nicholas has returned to ADAWA council after a 17-year hiatus. Nicholas graduated from UWA in 1988 and has spent most of his career practising in Oxford Street, Leederville. He has had a long relationship with the dental faculty at UWA, where he has been a clinical tutor for over 30 years.
He held the position of Secretary of the UWA Dental Alumni Society for 15 years and is the Immediate Past President of the Dental Study Group of WA.
He says his reason for electing for ADAWA council is simple, if a little clichéd. “I wish to represent the membership and act in the best interests of ADA members,” he says. “I would also like to feel that I’m accessible to all members and would encourage members to contact me at nickalbatis@gmail.com or on 0417884841 should they have anything to discuss regarding the association, be it positive or something they disagree with.”
Dr Martin Glick graduated from UWA in 1982. He has also completed a Graduate Diploma in Public Sector Management from Curtin University.
Martin has been an ADAWA member for a number of years and has been on the ADAWA council as the DHS representative since 2009.
Martin’s formal qualifications, along with public sector experience, bring valuable information to council.
He is also involved in service provision, as part of his role in working for Dental Health Services (DHS), for such population groups as those with special needs, non-ambulatory, aged care and prisoners.
Martin says it is important that there is a representative from DHS on council. “It is vital to have that connection and ability to discuss issues between public and private sectors, given that we are involved or are aware of changes to the local environment in regard to public policy. It is important to have that ability to discuss those issues,” he says.
“The relationship (between DHS and ADAWA) has been one that is beneficial, collegiate and supportive on both sides for many years and certainly pre-dates the time since I have been a part of the ADA(WA) council.”
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