President's Message
Goldi Gill
BA, MBA, CDA II
My name is Goldi Gill, and it is a great honour and privilege to serve as the first minority, South Asian President of the Ontario Dental Assistants Association. First, I would like to thank the wonderful staff of the ODAA for their excellent service to our membership, and a special thanks to our Executive Director, Carolyn Hibbs. Carolyn has truly uplifted our organization, with the recent revamping of our website, legal assistance program, and establishing strong relationships within our dental community. I am excited to see our organization progress under her leadership.
A little about myself: I married my high school sweetheart fifteen years ago, and we have two children who keep us busy with their sports and after-school activities. Continuous learning has always held a special spot for me—which brings me to share my educational background with you. I am a certified level two Dental Assistant, with a Bachelor degree in Communications and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. I am currently pursuing a doctorate in Business Psychology.
I have worked in dentistry for a little over 15 years, and like any profession, dentistry is constantly evolving. It is important for us as an organization to stay ahead of the curve by learning the newest advancements in technology, techniques and products. However, I believe that we must first encourage our membership to unite and uplift our profession. We are NOT “just” Dental Assistants. We ARE Dental Assistants. We are invaluable to our profession, we are change makers, patient engagers, schedulers, decontaminating experts and organizers.
My presidency goal is one that I will not be able to achieve alone. My goal is for us to demonstrate to the dental community our unity, doing this by creating a movement. It’s time for fair pay, benefits, and to be recognized as invaluable members of the dental community. This goal cannot be achieved alone—your support is vital! I hope to have articles in our following Journals that will assist you in asking for salary increases, and many other developmental resources.
On a final note, I leave you with this quote by Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.”