New interim executive director has storied career in organized dentistry

Elizabeth Shapiro, D.D.S., J.D., has served at ADA for 14 years

From dentist to lawyer to fellow to a senior leader at the ADA, the career of Elizabeth Shapiro, D.D.S., J.D., has run the gamut. She steps into the top role at the ADA after being named interim executive director by the ADA Board of Trustees Feb. 8.

Dr. Shapiro has served the ADA and organized dentistry in many roles, including as senior director for the Center for Dental Practice Policy and, most recently, as the chief of governance and strategy management, growing and fine-tuning her association management and leadership career in the process.  

It may be surprising to learn that Dr. Shapiro’s initial foray into Association leadership began when she received a fellowship in 2011 to help groom her leadership skills. The Hillenbrand Fellowship was sunset in 2012, but Dr. Shapiro has carried the tools she received from it into this chapter of her career. In the below story from the ADA News archives, Dr. Shapiro talks about becoming a Hillenbrand fellow; how she followed in her father’s footsteps to begin her busy early career; and her heartfelt dedication to improving dentistry for her peers and patients. Keep reading and stay tuned for more from ADA News about the new interim executive director, whose journey continues to be full of new opportunities.

Editor's note: The below ADA News story was first published in June 2011, written by now Editor-in-Chief, Kelly Ganski. 

Waterman, Ill.—With seven kids, all of whom helped out in his practice, somebody in Dr. David C. Shapiro’s family was going to end up being a dentist.

That somebody was Dr. Betsy Shapiro. She started out with her brothers and sisters mowing the lawn around the Amboy, Ill., practice, shoveling the sidewalk, filing and observing her father work.

“I was the only one who liked it,” Dr. Shapiro said. “I used to joke that I started out cleaning toilets and graduated into seeing patients.”

Her father, who also served in the Illinois state legislature, died when she was in high school but Dr. Shapiro was still dedicated to following in his footsteps. She went to dental school at the University of Illinois and began working at her father’s practice with his partner after graduating.

Not only did Dr. Shapiro follow her father into dental practice but she followed him into the political arena as well. She earned a law degree from Northern Illinois University, served on a number of American Dental Association and Illinois State Dental Association councils and committees and has been lobbying on behalf of the state dental political action committee.

Now, Dr. Shapiro has been named the 2011-12 Hillenbrand Fellow at the ADA. The fellowship grooms a dentist who has demonstrated strong leadership potential and someone who desires to make a career transition from dental practice into management and leadership in organized dentistry, a health-related organization, education, the dental industry or research.

“I am excited to welcome Dr. Shapiro to the Hillenbrand Fellowship program. She was selected among a number of highly qualified applicants but stood out for her dental practice experience and her time spent lobbying for access to care issues in the state of Illinois,” said ADA President Dr. Raymond Gist. “I look forward to seeing her further develop her leadership skills during her time at the ADA.”

The ADA offers the fellowship every other year and includes an intensive orientation to all ADA agencies and departments; an orientation to other oral health organizations and federal and state government agencies; and academic courses through the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Previous Hillenbrand fellows have gone on to become executive directors, associate deans, faculty and staff for various dental associations and schools and work in industry positions.

“Dr. Shapiro had everything we were looking for in a Hillenbrand Fellow,” said Dr. Stetphen Glenn, chair of the Council on Dental Practice, who also served on the Hillenbrand selection committee. “She knows what it means to be a dentist and small business owner running a practice. She has a strong law background, and she understands the process of advocating for dental issues at the state and national level. Her demonstrated leadership and motivation to make dental care better for both dentists and patients proved to us she could be successful as a Hillenbrand Fellow.

Dr. Shapiro will begin the fellowship in September and finish in August 2012. Like her predecessors, Dr. Shapiro will complete a project that is of interest to her and helpful to the ADA.

She’ll select her official project upon her start date, but Dr. Shapiro has already expressed an interest in access to care issues, citing her experience working with state legislators on the issue.

“In investigating avenues for care in underserved areas, I have found the jumble of various alternatives to be an unstructured lot; each with its own set of positives and negatives,” Dr. Shapiro wrote in her application. “I believe that it would be most useful to have some sort of reference tool upon which to rely when navigating this maze. I would hope that as a Hillenbrand Fellow I would be able to contribute to the creation of such a comprehensive resource; a field guide, if you will, of some description that would be of help to a practitioner, a local society or even a legislator in determining what might work best for a particular situation.”

Although she describes herself as “a dentist first, a lawyer second,” Dr. Shapiro felt the Hillenbrand Fellowship was an excellent opportunity to combine the two degrees.

Dr. Shapiro has no specific plans following the fellowship, saying she’ll see where the opportunity takes her. In the meantime, she’ll continue spending time with her husband, Dr. Robert O’Donnell, a dentist whom she met in dental school, and her two dogs, Malcom and Barney. The couple enjoy hiking with their dogs, and Dr. Shapiro counts cooking, gardening and restoring her 100-year-old home as some of her hobbies.

Upon approaching her fellowship, Dr. Shapiro reflects back to a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., which she cited in her application.

“Martin Luther King Jr. once said, ‘faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase,’” Dr. Shapiro wrote in her application. “This is perhaps the most accurate way to describe my feelings as I apply for the Hillenbrand Fellowship. I am not perfectly clear exactly where I hope this experience will lead me but I have absolute faith that it is an opportunity which I cannot ignore.”