Association membership of full-time faculty in dental schools.

Based on the current participation rates in the Association, most full-time faculty who are members of the AADS are White males tenured in the clinical sciences. The American Association of Dental Schools has captured a fair share of the full-time dental school faculty as members, but there is still considerable room for growth. In particular, as the composition of the dental school faculty diversifies, we must be sure that all elements of dental education are represented in the Association. Membership in the ranks of junior faculty is low, and currently the members of ethnic minorities and women are disproportionally represented there. There are 2,381 additional potential members among full-time faculty at U.S. dental schools who represent a large and important force for dental education. The effectiveness of the Association would be enhanced by the inclusion of these full-time faculty along with the thousands of part-time faculty, allied dental educators, and members of postdoctoral dental educational programs. In terms of attendance at the AADS Annual Session, almost all the attenders at the meeting this year were Association members (97 percent). Overall attendance at the Annual Session was quite good with about 60 percent of the full-time faculty Association members attending. Attendance rates among the categories we investigated did vary somewhat but not as much as membership by category. In general, dental school faculty who join the Association attend the Annual Session.