Plenary Sessions & Chair Symposia

Plenary Sessions

Sunday Plenary

In higher education, academic leaders are faced with the challenges of leading through unpreferred circumstances while maintaining optimism, fueling resiliency and helping those we lead find their point of impact to give their best and do their part in creating a better workplace and world place.

In this session, Cy Wakeman will awaken leaders to their most impactful role and help them modernize their approach by providing real-time, practical strategies for leading in challenging circumstances. Wakeman will offer her “No Ego” approach to “Making the Call to Greatness” so that leaders can quickly “love people up” and “call people up” to co-create a more ideal future. Modern leaders no longer manage just the work of their team members; they manage the energy of their teams, transcending learned helplessness and disillusionment to connect current realities to brighter futures.

Monday Plenary

The story of Henrietta Lacks captivated the world through Rebecca Skloot’s best-selling book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and the subsequent HBO film of the same name, which brought long overdue attention to the woman behind HeLa cells—arguably the most important human cell line in scientific history. Her story sparked a global discussion about the intersection of science, ethics and human dignity that remains urgently relevant to overall health today, including in the oral health education community.

In this interview-style plenary session, Veronica Lacks and David Lacks Jr.—great-granddaughter and grandson of Henrietta Lacks—join Dr. Sonya G. Smith, ADEA Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff, for a moderated conversation that moves beyond the pages and the screen to connect the story of HeLa cells directly to modern oral health research. Harvested in 1951 without her knowledge or consent, Henrietta’s cells became one of medicine’s most vital research tools, fueling breakthroughs in oral cancer biology, HPV-related oropharyngeal disease, vaccine development and dental biomaterials. Yet for decades the Lacks family remained unaware of Henrietta’s extraordinary contribution to science, receiving neither acknowledgment nor compensation while her cells transformed the landscape of modern medicine.

Through the Lacks family’s firsthand perspective, this session confronts the human cost of research practices without proper safeguards or regard for patients’ rights. Attendees are invited to reflect not only on the importance of Henrietta’s contributions to bioethics but also their responsibility in cultivating transparency and patient trust as part of overall comprehensive person-centered care.

The willingness of Henrietta’s family to share her story serves as both a tribute to her legacy and a powerful reminder that behind every research breakthrough are real people and real communities who deserve to be seen, respected and protected. This session calls on oral health educators, students, clinicians and researchers to champion biotechnological innovation that is ethical, patient-centered and rooted in meaningful informed consent.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the impact of HeLa cells on oral health and how the circumstances of their collection reflect long-standing gaps in patient consent, ethics and related teaching practices.
 
• Discuss how the Lacks family’s willingness to share their story illuminates the human consequences of scientific research done without ethical safeguards or knowledge of the individuals at its center.
 
• Explore the ethical responsibilities within scientific research and how trust, transparency and informed consent shapes patient-centered oral health innovation.

Tuesday Plenary

Prepared teams with the right tools can do more than survive a crisis—they can thrive in uncertainty. But without a strong crisis leadership strategy, even the best teams may falter. In a poll of 2,000+ executives, many couldn’t identify their biggest crisis preparedness gap, and half were unsure if their teams could even respond effectively. The cost of unpreparedness? Lost revenue, market share, employee trust and more. Anton Gunn understands this firsthand.

Over two decades ago, in a time of national crisis and personal challenge, he chose to lead forward despite the uncertainty. That choice propelled him to advising a U.S. president and transforming organizations nationwide. Today, with 20+ years of leadership development experience, Mr. Gunn equips organizations with the skills to navigate crises, strengthen culture and lead with confidence. He teaches that any team can excel in adversity by applying the core principles of high-impact leadership.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and describe disruptive environments,
• Recognize and employ the right mindset during uncertain times,
• Build resilient teams that are prepared for adversity and
• Respond to the impact of the crisis (i.e., do not react to the circumstances).

Chair of the Board Symposia Sessions