Volume 8 • 2021 • Issue 3

We have an opportunity as a profession to find new ways of doing things. We have core values, thosearen’t changing, but I believe that we’ll find new and better ways for the profession to thrive in a changed world. “That year, I visited the CDA offices in Ottawa for the first time,” he says. “And it reminded me of how proud I was when I got my CDA membership card as a student. It has the address printed on it, so to visit the building in person felt like visiting a shrine.” In 2013, Richard joined the CDA Board of Directors. On the CDA board, he has served as chair of the Strong Profession Priority Teamand theUSC&LS Committee and the board liaison for the national students’ association and the clinical and scientific affairs committee. More Forks Ahead In 2014, Richard’s youngest daughter Charlee suggested that they both travel to Kenya on a mission trip to volunteer at a clinic inMikinduri. “It was eye opening,” he says. “We were set up to run medical, dental and vision clinics, but the dental clinics had to deal with primarily the elimination of infection. Extraction of infected teeth was the priority. I had the privilege of working alongside some young Kenyan dentists. Even after I came home, I felt more intensely about the importance of dentists as health care providers.” The experience also influenced Charlee, who is now in her first year of dental school at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Daughter Lauren earned a degree in naturopathic medicine in Toronto and is now living, working and engaged to be married, back in PEI. Son Jordan also recently returned from Australia and Tasmania, where he was working on various farms doing a variety of jobs. “He’s been on an adventure to help figure out what he wants to do next,” says Richard. “It’s a real fork in the road moment for him!” Richard says that the pandemic has accelerated change, both inside and outside of dentistry, and he feels that CDA is also at a fork in the road. “We have an opportunity as a profession to find new ways of doing things,” he says. “We have core values, those aren’t changing, but I believe that we’ll find new and better ways for the profession to thrive in a changed world.” Four Dal Class of 1989 graduates who served on the CDA Board of Directors. (L. to r.) Dr. Michael Brown, Dr. Holden, Dr. Linda Blakey and Dr. Paul Cameron. Richard and daughter Charlee in Mikinduri, Kenya, where they volunteered at a clinic in 2014. (L. to r.) Dr. Holden, Dr. Kerby Bruce and Dr. Calvin MacPherson, outside their Charlottetown office. 12 | 2021 | Issue 3 CDA at W ork