Local Educator to Serve as President of ADAA

BRADENTON – Bradenton resident Kimberly Bland has been named national President-Elect of the American Dental Assistants Association. The ADAA represents the interests of the more than 300,000 dental assistants in the United States and is America’s oldest, largest dental assistant organization. As President-Elect, Ms. Bland will sit on the ADAA board of trustees and perform administrative and ceremonial duties throughout the year.

Mrs. Bland is Dental Assisting Program Director at Manatee Technical Institute in Bradenton, where she has been employed for 14 years and has been a dental assistant for more that 30 years. She is a Certified Dental Assistant and an Expanded Function Dental Assistant and holds a Masters in Education from South Florida University. 

Mrs. Bland currently serves on the Florida Department of Education Health Service Working Group and was Executive Director of the Florida Allied Dental Educators from 2010 to 2012. She is married to Patrick Bland and the mother of Elizabeth Taylor-Bland and Kenneth Bland.

In 2007, Mrs. Bland was elected to the president of the ADAA after having served on the national board of trustees as a regional trustee and in other capacities. She has been active in the local Sara-Mana Dental Assistants Society and the Florida Dental Assistants Association and is a past president of both. She will assume the national presidency in October, 2014.

During 2014, ADAA officers will preside over Dental Assistants Recognition Week in March and the annual, national conference in San Antonio with the American Dental Association.

The ADAA is dedicated to the development and recognition of professionalism through education, membership services and public awareness programs. The group is a strong advocate for legislation mandating credentialing for clinical dental assistants and greater recognition of the assistant's role in the professional dental team.