Linda Edgar, D.D.S.

President-elect candidate

ADA Elections 2022

Candidates seeking ADA-elected offices prepared platform statements and profiles for the ADA News. Each candidate was sent a profile form with the same questions and asked to list no more than five items for professional memberships, volunteer posts/elective offices and main qualifications. Publication of these statements and profiles should not be construed as an endorsement of any candidate by the ADA News or other staff of the ADA or its subsidiaries. These statements and profiles are presented as information for Association members.

The candidates included are those who — as of Aug. 2 — had decided to seek office through the upcoming Association elections being held concurrently with the Oct. 15-18 House of Delegates in Houston. The candidates’ profiles and statements are also available on ADA.org for Association members only.

Linda Edgar, D.D.S.

Campaign Statement

Welcome to a new day at the ADA. I am excited about the new proposed Strategic Forecasting Committee in resolutions 205 and 206. If this becomes policy, we will be engaging over 200 people throughout the dental world including executive directors, nonmembers, new dentists and dental students to help create the future for ADA and ignite our membership. The potential to catapult ADA by collaborating with all dental organizations, the schools and the Health Resources & Services Administration to help with scholarships for oral health literacy programs and expanding diversity in our workforce is exciting!

I also know we can work with the hospital associations to develop dental clinics in hospitals to avoid emergency room visits for toothaches. We are on the “cusp” of developing the new app which will customize members’ needs. For the first time as your Budget and Finance chair this year, you will see the ADA budget summarize the programs we fund and the revenues and expenses so you can better determine all that ADA does for its members. I want ADA to be an exceptional organization that our members rave about: A big organization that feels like a small organization with a personal touch.

Profile

Current residence: Federal Way, Washington

Dental school attended: University of Washington

Year received dental degree: 1992

Postgraduate education/specialty: Master’s of science in education

Years of ADA membership (include ASDA membership): 34

Other professional memberships:

Academy of General Dentistry-30 years.
American Association for Women Dentists.

American College of Dentists.
International College of Dentists.
Pierre Fauchard Academy.

Volunteer posts/elective offices held in organized dentistry:

President, Seattle King County Dental Society.
ADA delegate, 2005-18.
Academy of General Dentistry secretary (four years, two terms).
AGD president.
Chair, University of Washington Dental School $22 million campaign.

What are your main qualifications for the office you seek?

Eight years as a national AGD officer.
FDI delegate, four years.
Consultant to the Strategic Forecasting Task Force (as the chair of Budget and Finance Committee).
Chair, ADA Budget and Finance Committee.
Chair, Business Innovation Committee, 2022.

Why do you want to be an ADA officer?
We need a leader with association national experience, connections, time, passion, determination and a proven track record of working with teams to get things done to bring dentistry together and move our ADA membership back up to the 75% level. We need a dedicated, compassionate leader to remove the words “can’t” and “impossible” and help the ADA thrive.

I was born into a Coast Guard family. My dad was a rescue pilot. He ended his career as an admiral in charge of protecting the eastern seaboard from Virginia to Florida. I was a high school teacher for 15 years. I coached and was a marathon runner, completing 45 marathons in 10 years and completed the First Woman’s Olympic Trials Marathon in 1984 in 2:47.

I would like to help the ADA do three things better: Connect, collaborate and communicate. We need to connect with our dental students, create a personal touch and teach them why it is important for them to be an ADA member. We need to develop mentor programs throughout our members’ careers which will help our members get our help when they need us the most.

I would like to collaborate with Health Resources & Services Administration to help increase loan repayment programs and our schools to bring oral health literacy, create a dream of being a dentist and increase workforce training.

We need to communicate better and answer the question, “What has ADA done for me lately?” We will listen and act quickly to members’ needs because what “matters most to me is what matters to you."