In a 2018 study on woman entrepreneurs, BMO Harris Bank identified sexism and harassment as barriers to advancement and highlighted a greater need for mentoring programs and networks. BMO is collaborating with the American Dental Association to offer a number of resources to encourage and support women dentists, including tailored networking events and shared online resources.
“Women don’t have much time,” said Mollie Gawronski, head of Business Relationship Sales with BMO Harris Bank. “We have busy lives, so it is important to find some people who you can actually connect with that will support growth toward achieving personal goals and business goals and make you feel like you’re part of a community.
I think that’s what we’ve seen at the ADA, and we’re trying to work with them on building out different events … so that it feels like more than just networking.”
BMO Harris Bank, the ADA Member Advantage endorsed provider for practice financing, is collaborating with the ADA on developing programing for women dentists to foster connections that bear more fruit than typical networking.
The ADA has established a successful Women in Dentistry Leadership Series that has been presented at ADA 2017 in Atlanta and ADA 2018 in Honolulu. The program will again be presented at ADA FDI World Dental Congress in San Francisco, Sept. 4-8. But ADA members are thinking even bigger. A motivated group of volunteers, partners and ADA staff members are joining forces to create year-round programming for the Women in Dentistry initiative, both nationally and with state and local societies. Along with other corporate supporters, BMO Harris will develop and present these events.
Ms. Gawronski states, “More than special member rates, we want to create a whole program to help dentists succeed. One facet of that program is supporting the ADA’s Women in Dentistry initiative.”
BMO Harris Bank offers all ADA members outstanding service and rates as the only practice financing provider recommended for ADA Members. “We’re the preferred lender for practice financing,” said Ms. Gawronski. “So, if there’s a dentist who wants to buy out his or her partner or if a dentist is looking to sell his or her practice, we could help that incoming dentist acquire, pay for and finance that. That’s what the My BMO relationship is.” ADA Members will receive special rate, at a .5% rate reduction on practice loans up to $1,000,000. Custom pricing is available for loans exceeding $1,000,000.
For more information about BMO Harris Bank visit www.bmoharris.com/dentists.
To learn more about other ADA Member Advantage-endorsed companies, visit www.adamemberadvantage.com.
This blog post, republished with permission, originally appeared in the ADA Dental Practice Success.