Call for Programs

• Individuals are responsible for reading all information applicable to their proposals here and on the  Presenters Corner prior to making their submissions.
• Individuals may submit proposals for up to two educational sessions.
• No individual may participate as a speaker, panelist and/or moderator for more than two times during the 2025 ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition.
• The number of co-speakers is limited based on the presentation format. 
• Sessions may be virtual at the 2025 ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition.
• Programs should be brand and vendor neutral. Submissions promoting specific product bands, services or technologies will not be considered. Large equipment cannot be demonstrated.
• Selling or promoting products is prohibited.
• Individuals submitting proposals must observe copyright and trademark rules and obtain appropriate permissions prior to submission.
• Submitters may withdraw proposals by sending a written notification to Program Submissions at programsubmissions@adea.org.
• Late submissions will not be accepted.
• All presenters must be registered for the ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition and pay the conference rates.

• Academic affairs administrators
• ADEA Leadership Institute alumni
• Advanced dental educators and students
• Association members
• Allied dental educators and students
• Biomedical science faculty
• Clinic administrators
• Clinicians
• Clinical faculty
• Corporations
• Curriculum developers
• Deans
• Government relations experts
• Health professions advisors
• Informatics experts
• Interdisciplinary teams
• Leadership trainers
• Predoctoral dental educators and students
• Program directors
• Public health and community health specialists
• Researchers
• ADEA Sections and Special Interest Groups
• Student Affairs professionals
• Technology specialists

Submissions are accepted for:

1. Educational sessions
2. Poster presentations
3. ADEA TechExpo presentations
4. ADEA Corporate Council educational submissions

Learn more about 202 ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition presentation formats.

Although programs for all levels of experience are welcome, the ADEA Annual Session Program Committee seeks to increase the proportion of higher-level programs that would be of interest to faculty with 10 or more years of experience. The Annual Session Program Committee seeks a balance of programming to reflect the experience levels of attendees:

We recommend that you write your proposal in a word processing program and then paste it into the submission site. Please avoid the use of abbreviations and commercial product names.

Titles: Abstract titles are limited to 10 words and should be entered in title case, following AP style. Titles should not be bold, italicized or in “all caps.”

Authors: Each author should be added separately to the submission. The first author listed in your submission will be identified as the presenting author. The order of the authors can be modified at any time prior to the abstract deadline.

Abstract Text: Educational session abstracts should contain no more than 100 words. Do not include references. If your proposal is accepted, your abstract text will be posted online.

Description: Educational session descriptions should be formatted as an outline including content, activities and timing of segments and should contain no more than 100 words. The description is used for the review process only and will not be posted online.

Institutional Review Board (IRB): When prompted, the authors should list whether the project was IRB-approved for use of human subjects or whether the project was IRB-exempt.

Learning Objectives: Write clear and focused learning objectives. Learning objectives tell participants what the programming will teach them or enable them to do.

Audience Interaction: Describe how your educational session will engage the audience and solicit participation in no more than 50 words. Adults learn most effectively through engagement and interactivity. All educational programs must include participant interaction activities.

Designations: When submitting educational programs, you may indicate whether you would like your session to be considered for an ADEA SoTLfest, ADEA CCI, ADEA LIAA or ADEA Section or SIG designation.

Keywords: Proposals must include one professional interest keyword, one dental education keyword, one target audience and one domain.

View available Domain/Keyword choices (PDF) and on the submission site.

Submitting your proposal: Proofread your submission before submitting it. The submission site does not include a spelling or grammar check feature. (Consequently, we recommend that you write your proposal in a word processing program and then paste it into the submission site.) Once the deadline passes, you will not be able to edit your proposal.

View examples of educational session (PDF) and poster (PDF) proposals.

Download the Preparing Your Submission Checklist (PDF).

Submitters have the option to apply for funding from the ADEA Council of Sections Program Fund.

To apply for funding, you must submit your session proposal via the link below:

COS Program Fund Submission Site

Scope: The traditional Short Talks Session provides a format for sharing ideas in five-minute segments during a session centered on a particular educational theme. The Short Talks format supports the ADEA Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) by providing ADEA members an opportunity to share teaching and learning innovations with a national audience—sparking further conversation, networking and development of teaching innovations.

Format: Short Talk sessions are typically submitted as a 60-minute seminar. In the abstract you should provide a few specific examples of some five-minute sessions in which you plan on being part of the session. All of the speakers do not have to be identified at the time of submission. The submission process is the same as other formats. Please add “Short Talk” to your Title.

All presenters must be sent via email to Program Submissions at programsubmissions@adea.org before Dec. 1, 2025 if not entered by June 2, 2025.

Video: Submitting a Short Talk for the ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition

Speaker: Robert Spears, M.S., Ph.D.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the Short Talk Session Format. 
• List the criteria of a successful program submission.
• Examine pros and cons of this format.
• Identify timelines and key steps of the ADEA program submission and review process.
• Link the conference theme and/or the various key topic areas in ADEA to a proposal.

Download ADEA Short Talk Guidelines (PDF)

ADEA welcomes submissions by members of the ADEA Corporate Council for educational programming. All submissions must be in compliance with ADA CERP guidelines to avoid promotional or commercial conflicts of interest. When preparing your submission, please keep the following requirements in mind:

• The educational session should promote improvements in dental care or dental education and not a specific drug, device, service or technique of a commercial entity.
• The educational session must not include promotional materials for any products your company supports.
• Use generic, nonbranded names when referring to services or products (e.g., tablet instead of iPad, fluoride varnish instead of XYZ Brand).
• You may not engage in sales or promotional activities while conducting this educational session.

In addition to the guidance provided under “Preparing your submission,” please keep the following guidelines in mind: 

• Authors: One author should be identified as the poster presenter.
• Abstract Text: All poster abstracts should be 300 words or less. If the abstract is based on research that was funded entirely or partially by an outside source, please be sure to list the funding agency and grant number at the end of the text. 
• Abstract Content: All abstracts MUST contain the following section headings:
  • Objectives
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Conclusion
• Learning Focuses: Each poster proposal must include an ADEA Annual Session Learning Focus based on the abstract’s content. An abstract’s Learning Focus determines the group of peer reviewers who will evaluate it, as well as the grouping of posters onsite at Annual Session. Authors MUST select one of the following 10 Learning Domains (listed below) for each submitted poster abstract.
• Institutional Review Board (IRB): When prompted, the authors should list whether the project was IRB-approved for use of human subjects or whether the project was IRB-exempt.
• Student Poster Competition: ADEA holds a competition for student posters at each ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition. Awardees are provided a stipend at the end of the meeting. For a poster to be eligible students MUST be the first author, MUST be enrolled full-time in a predoctoral or allied dental program and MUST NOT hold faculty positions. Each student may only enter ONE submission into the student poster competition per year. Posters accepted for the Student Poster Competition MUST be led and presented by the student listed as first author. In case of an emergency, another co-author may present, however the poster will not be judged for the student poster competition. Posters not led by a student as described above will be disqualified. During the competition, the presenter is required to be by his/her/their poster for the duration of the presentation time. Failure to do so will result in the poster not being judged.

To ensure poster submissions comply with federal regulations requiring that research projects involving human subjects be reviewed by an Institutional Review Board (IRB), ADEA requires that all such submissions carry a status of IRB-approved or IRB-exempt.  ADEA requires IRB numbers to be provided for applicable poster submissions. For IRB-exempt submissions, authors are required to affirm that their submission meets their institution’s requirements for IRB-exemption.  Poster submissions for research projects involving human subjects that are not IRB-approved or carry a status of “pending” shall be deemed ineligible for consideration.  IRB-approved submissions that fail to include the IRB number or IRB-exempt submissions without affirmation of meeting institutional policies on IRB-exemption will not be reviewed or accepted by ADEA.

For details on IRB requirements, please consult your institution’s guidelines.

At the 2026 ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition, there are ten learning domains to help attendees find the most relevant programs:

1. Academic & Administrative Affairs
   Programs and posters that focus on accreditation, admissions, advocacy, curriculum development, mapping, and innovation development and alumni relations, institutional and organization development, and diverse recruitment and retention.
2. Assessment
   Programs and posters focus on competency assessment, education assessment, educational outcomes, licensure and certification and program evaluation.
3. Health Advocacy
   Programs and posters that focus on community health anddental public health, health care systems, health policies, workforce policies, medical and dental integration, disaster preparedness, and climate change.
4. Health and Wellness (Academic Community and/or Patients)
   Programs and posters that focuses on diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), personal and academic counseling, women’s health, LGBTQ health, occupational health, mental health and burnout, and the effects of climate change.
5. New Technologies
   Programs and posters that address distance education, online digital learning resources, information management and digital applications, educational technology, and artificial intelligence (AI).
6. Patient Care
   Programs and posters that focus on ethics and professionalism, cultural competency, family and domestic violence, jurisprudence and legal issues, patient safety and medical errors, quality assurance, substance abuse disorder and tobacco cessation, patients with disabilities, women’s oral and systemic health, and interprofessional collaborative care.
7. Pedagogy/Andragogy
   Programs and posters that focuses on cognition, human learning and problem solving, communications and interpersonal skills, critical thinking, educational methodologies, and materials, interprofessional education and collaborative care, problem-based learning, case-based learning, team-based learning, and service learning.

List of keywords for each domain (PDF)

Program proposals are assessed based on their content and relevance, clarity, format, degree of learner interactivity, quality of writing, value of learning objectives, past successes of similar presentations, number of other submissions on the same topic, historical speaker evaluation ratings and the proposal’s overall contribution to the 2026 ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition.

Each completed submission is peer reviewed and evaluated by the Annual Session Program Committee using the criteria provided in the following evaluation rubrics:

• Educational Programs (Seminars, Workshops, Short Talks and Small Group Discussions) Rubric (PDF)
• Educational Programs (Corporate Track) Rubric (PDF)
• ADEA New Idea Rubric (PDF)
• ADEA TechExpo Rubric (PDF)
• Educational Poster Rubric (PDF)
• ADEA New Program Poster Rubric (PDF)

View examples of well-written educational session (PDF) and poster (PDF) proposals.

The American Dental Education Association is an ADA CERP recognized provider. ADA CERP is a service of the American Dental Association to assist dental professionals in identifying quality providers of continuing dental education. ADA CERP does not approve or endorse individual courses or instructors, nor does it imply acceptance of credit hours by boards of dentistry.

Programs one hour or more are eligible for CE. ADEA will announce the maximum number of continuing education credit available by early January 2026.

ADEA promotes educational content that is peer-reviewed and supported by generally accepted scientific principles or methods that can be substantiated or supported with peer-reviewed scientific literature that is relevant and current or that is currently part of the curriculum of an accredited U.S. or Canadian dental education program, and that, whenever possible, employs components of evidence-based dentistry. Additionally, ADEA promotes, when applicable, that educational content presents a balanced view of therapeutic options and that generic names, and not specific drug, device, service or technique of a commercial entity, are used.