2026 DeW Life Retreat Speakers Guide

JoAn Majors

Co-Founder / VP of Learning & Development | Speaker & Author

JoAn Majors is a nationally recognized speaker, author, and educator with decades of experience inspiring transformation in dental and healthcare communities. As Co-Founder and VP of Learning & Development at DeW Life, she is dedicated to empowering women to lead with purpose, curiosity, and authentic connection.

What’s Her Story?

Curiosity, Connection & Authentic Relationships

In a world that moves quickly and judges even faster, we often meet one another at the surface — names, roles, accomplishments, and appearances. Beneath every woman is a story rarely told at first glance: a deeper narrative of resilience, longing, faith, heartbreak, growth, and becoming. This is an invitation to slow down, lean in, and rediscover the transformative power of curiosity — not curiosity with an agenda, but a quiet, intentional posture that says, I see you, and I want to understand. To honor the unseen chapters that influence the visible life. Because the woman sitting next to you carries more than what she leads with — and so do you.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Curiosity Creates Connection — Learn how genuine curiosity opens doors to trust, understanding, and meaningful relationships.
• Every Woman Has a Story Beneath the Surface — Discover how experiences, challenges, and triumphs shape the way women show up in the world.
• Replace Assumptions with Understanding — Gain practical ways to move beyond first impressions and cultivate deeper, more authentic conversations.

Jasmin Haley, MS, RDH, CDA

Founder & Principal Consultant, Legacy Scaler® | Award-Winning Educator & Leadership Strategist

Jasmin Haley, MS, RDH, CDA, is an award-winning educator, Program Director, leadership strategist, and founder of Legacy Scaler®, a leadership development and curriculum design agency. She also founded Beyond the Prophy® and the National Academy of Dental Educators™. Her work spans curriculum design, faculty leadership, public speaking, and government training initiatives, all rooted in courageous communication, authentic leadership, and lasting impact.

Courage Isn’t Loud: Making the Hard, Quiet Decisions That Change Everything

Values-Based Courage, Misalignment & Intentional Decision-Making

Many women find themselves carrying roles, responsibilities, and expectations that once fit but no longer align with who they are becoming. They know something needs to change, yet they often feel trapped between two choices: stay where they are or blow everything up. But what if there is another way? In this powerful and practical session, Jasmin Haley explores the quiet moments of courage that rarely receive recognition but often create the greatest transformation. Through personal stories, guided reflection, and actionable frameworks, participants will learn how to recognize misalignment, stop forcing what no longer fits, and make intentional decisions without creating unnecessary chaos in their lives, businesses, or relationships.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• A deeper understanding of what courage looks like beyond dramatic action and major life changes.
• Increased awareness of where you may be forcing outcomes, roles, or expectations that no longer align with your values.
• One clear next step you can implement immediately to create momentum toward the life and leadership you desire.

Brandi Marzolino

Founder, Courage & Joy at Work | Leadership Strategist & Speaker

Brandi Marzolino is a leadership strategist, speaker, and former dental executive with more than two decades of experience helping leaders build healthier, more effective workplace cultures rooted in emotional safety. Nearly a decade sober, she brings a powerful perspective on resilience and sustainable growth. Through Courage and Joy at Work and The Empowered LeadHERship Experience for Women in Dental, she helps leaders move beyond burnout to build teams, businesses, and lives they truly love.

The Future of Dentistry Has a Woman’s Name On It

Women’s Leadership Identity & Boundary-Setting in Dentistry

Dentistry was built in a world that wasn’t designed with women in mind — the leadership models, the culture, the expectations. And yet, women continue to lead and buy practices, build teams, and do it all while navigating systems never built to support them. This talk is part rally cry, part roadmap: an honest conversation about what it means to lead as a woman in this industry, why it matters more now than ever, and what it actually looks like to stop leading the way we’ve been taught and start leading from who you are. We’re not waiting for permission. We’re walking the path.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Recognize the invisible leadership conditioning that has been shaping your decisions, voice, and confidence in rooms not built for you.
• Define your personal leadership identity — values, vision, and non-negotiables — so you lead from the inside out, not from who the room expects you to be.
• Set boundaries in work and at home that protect your energy without shrinking your influence as an entrepreneur, leader, mother, partner, and contributor.

Laura Nelson

VP of AI, Training & Development, Mango Voice | Founder, Front Office Rocks | Author

Laura Nelson is the VP of AI, Training, and Development at Mango Voice, a sought-after speaker and dental industry expert. She is the founder of Front Office Rocks, co-founder of Sober Life Rocks, and author of four books including her latest, Brush Up on AI — a hands-on guide to using artificial intelligence in real dental practice settings.

Your Invisible Assistant: Using AI to Organize Your Life, Not Just Your Business

AI for Personal Clarity, Mental Load Reduction & Life Leadership

You run a company. You lead teams. You speak on stages. You hold the vision. But who’s holding you? This session is for high-capacity women who are tired of being the brain for everything. Laura explores how to use AI as a personal assistant to reduce mental load, manage life logistics, and create breathing room outside of work. This is not about automating your business — it’s about reclaiming your time and clarity at home. Attendees will walk away knowing how to use AI to plan travel, organize family schedules, meal plan, habit stack, track goals, think through big personal decisions, draft hard conversations, and create structure for health, finances, and personal growth.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Practical ways to use AI to reduce mental overload in everyday life — from travel planning to family scheduling, meal planning, and habit tracking.
• How to create systems for personal organization, planning, and decision-making using AI tools you already have access to.
• A new perspective on AI as a supportive tool for clarity, balance, and personal growth — not just business performance.

Marni Blythe

CEO, Full Pocket Coaching | Fractional COO | Keynote Speaker & Co-Author

Marni Blythe is a nationally recognized professional speaker, Fractional COO, and leadership expert known for helping businesses scale through strong leadership, operational excellence, and culture transformation. After senior executive roles in Fortune 500 companies in New York City, she founded Full Pocket Coaching. She is co-author of the Amazon bestselling book Culture Catalyst.

Human Intelligence: Rooted Leadership in the Age of AI

Self-Awareness, Emotional Resilience & Human-Centered Leadership

As technology accelerates and the demands of leadership intensify, the leaders who rise will be the ones most deeply connected to themselves. Marni Blythe explores the role of Human Intelligence (HI) in the age of AI — why self-awareness, emotional resilience, and intentional leadership have become essential advantages. Attendees will discover how internal thought patterns, unconscious beliefs, and emotional responses quietly shape the way they lead, communicate, navigate pressure, and create impact.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Discover why the future of leadership depends on more than intelligence, strategy, or technology alone.
• Explore how internal thought patterns and unconscious beliefs quietly influence leadership, stress, communication, and decision-making.
• Gain a new perspective on what it means to lead with clarity, resilience, and human connection in an increasingly artificial world.

Angela Davis-Sullivan

Speaker, Published Author & Leadership Coach | Director of Mastermind Programs, DeW Life

Angela Davis-Sullivan is a powerhouse in dental practice success, combining 30+ years of hands-on experience with fearless, results-focused coaching. From expanded function dental assistant to administrator and manager, she’s seen every side of dentistry — and now helps teams and leaders unlock their best. A dynamic speaker, published author, and trusted contributor to leading dental publications.

Rooted, Rising & Resilient: Leading Yourself Through the Seasons You Never Saw Coming

Resilient Leadership, Identity & Navigating Uncertainty

This session is not about perfection, performance, or pretending everything is fine. It’s about learning how to lead through uncertainty, pivots, pressure, and personal growth — without abandoning yourself in the process. Through story-driven insight, honest reflection, and practical leadership frameworks, attendees will leave with a renewed understanding of what resilient leadership really looks like — not just in business, but in life.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Stay grounded in your identity and values when circumstances feel uncertain or overwhelming.
• Navigate change, setbacks, and evolving roles with confidence instead of survival mode.
• Build resilience that is sustainable — not performative — so you can keep showing up for the long game.

Crystal Spring, RDH, BS

Founder & Executive Director, Smiles Across Montana | DeW Board — Director of Wellness

Crystal Spring, RDH, BS is the founder and Executive Director of Smiles Across Montana, a mobile dental nonprofit expanding access to care across rural and underserved communities. With nearly three decades in dentistry, she is passionate about leadership, innovation, and creating meaningful impact through prevention-focused care and community connection.

The Strong One

Strength, Self-Compassion & the Hidden Cost of Leading

Strength in women is often admired — the ability to lead, carry responsibility, push through hard seasons, and keep showing up. But there’s another side that people don’t always see: the pressure, the loneliness, the self-doubt, and the weight of being the one others depend on. In this honest and inspiring talk, Crystal shares reflections on leadership, resilience, relationships, and the journey of learning to love yourself through all of it — even in the seasons where you feel stretched thin or unseen.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• You are not alone — strength comes with a price, but also with purpose, growth, and meaningful connection.
• Your worth is not tied to everyone else’s approval — women don’t have to lose themselves in the process of becoming strong.
• Give yourself the same grace, compassion, and belief you so freely give to others.

Dr. Aditi Agarwal

Practicing Dentist, Practice Owner & Co-Founder, Practice by Numbers

Dr. Aditi Agarwal is a practicing dentist, practice owner, and co-founder of Practice by Numbers. She originally built PbN to solve her own operational pain points — and now helps practices across the country gain control, improve efficiency, and scale sustainably. A respected speaker and clinician, she brings a grounded, operator-first perspective to dental technology.

The Dentist Who Disappeared: Reclaiming Yourself Beyond the Practice

Identity, Joy & Reconnecting to Self Beyond Achievement

Many women in dentistry slowly lose themselves to leadership, caregiving, business ownership, motherhood, perfectionism, and responsibility. In this powerful and deeply personal talk, Dr. Aditi explores what happens when your identity becomes entirely tied to what you produce — and how to reconnect with the person underneath the role. She shares the emotional cost of constantly holding everything together and the intentional work required to rebuild joy, creativity, presence, and self beyond achievement.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Recognize the moment your identity became your output — and why that’s a signal worth paying attention to.
• Understand the emotional cost of performing strength without space for rest, creativity, or play.
• Leave with intentional practices for rebuilding joy, presence, and a sense of self that exists beyond your role.

Dr. Karen Tindall

Luxury Travel Designer | Former Orthodontist | Accredited International Life Coach

Dr. Karen Tindall is a luxury travel designer who curates bespoke vacations, trips of a lifetime, and corporate retreats for busy professionals and high-level executives. With a unique background as both a former orthodontist and an accredited international life coach, she brings unmatched precision and insight to the art of travel and restoration.

Not All Tired is the Same: How to Filter Your Rest and Fuel Your Glow

Strategic Rest, Recovery & The Science of Restoration

For high-achieving women, success often comes at the cost of chronic exhaustion. We master our careers but struggle to master our recovery — because not all tired is the same, so not all rest should be the same. Dr. Karen Tindall introduces The Radiance Filter, the ultimate tool for turning a standard vacation into a power move. Discover the science behind the Vacation Effect and learn how to diagnose exactly what kind of restoration you need right now.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Not all tired is the same — learn to identify your specific type of depletion so you can restore more effectively.
• Discover the Vacation Effect and the science behind strategic rest as a catalyst for long-term performance.
• Walk away with The Radiance Filter — a practical tool to design your next retreat or downtime as a genuine power move.

Edna Butron Abreu

Founder, The Dental Culturist | Founder, Virtual Standard Solutions | Founder, Latinas in Dentistry

Edna Butron Abreu is the founder of The Dental Culturist, Virtual Standard Solutions, and Latinas in Dentistry. A first-generation immigrant from Bolivia, she has spent the past decade building a career in dentistry that turns personal hardship into purpose. Her mission: making sure the next generation of women in dentistry has a seat at every table she ever had to fight her way into.

The Seat With Your Name On It: What It Costs to Show Up, and What It Builds When You Do

Belonging, Courage & Claiming Your Place

Every woman in this room has hesitated to take a seat she thought belonged to someone else. The room she didn’t apply to. The stage she didn’t walk onto. The version of herself she was waiting to grow into before she stepped forward. Edna Butron Abreu shares the moments that almost kept her quiet — and what changed when she stopped waiting for permission. The thesis is simple: there is a seat with your name on it. Showing up to claim it costs something. Not showing up costs more.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The cost of hesitation is greater than the cost of showing up — and you already have what it takes to take the seat.
• Waiting for permission is a choice — and so is deciding to stop waiting.
• Your story, your background, and your presence are not liabilities. They are the exact reason the seat has your name on it.

Kendra Flowers (McKune), RDH, MSDH

Co-Founder, Merkaba Strategy & Health Advisors | DSO Commercialization & Go-to-Market Strategy

Kendra Flowers, RDH, MSDH, is a dental hygienist turned strategist and co-founder of Merkaba Strategy & Health Advisors, specializing in DSO commercialization, clinical implementation, and go-to-market strategy for dental products and technology. With over a decade of clinical experience, Kendra sits at the intersection of care and commerce.

Are You Living the Life You Imagined, or the One That Fits?

Authentic Leadership & Aligning Work with How You’re Actually Wired

Most women in dentistry build toward an image: the founder, the executive, the leader who looks the part. But what happens when the life you performed toward doesn’t match the way you’re actually wired? This talk explores what it means to stop optimizing for the imagined version and start leading from your real strengths. Through the lens of building Merkaba Strategy & Health Advisors, Kendra unpacks how Futuristic and Strategic thinking — once minimized — became the foundation of her most aligned and effective work yet.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The image you’ve been building toward may not be the one that fits — and recognizing the gap is the first step to leading authentically.
• Your minimized strengths may be your most powerful assets — they just haven’t been framed that way yet.
• Aligned leadership isn’t found in the imagined version of yourself. It’s built by leading from who you actually are.

Lana Rivera

Owner, NMG Practice Solutions | International Dental Consultant & Practice Transformation Strategist

With a career that began at 17 and built entirely through the hard knocks of dentistry, Lana Rivera knows what it takes to run, lead, and scale a practice. As owner of NMG Practice Solutions and an international dental consultant working across the U.S. and Europe, she specializes in recreating operational foundations that allow practices to grow beyond their wildest expectations.

Operational Clarity is Power: How Women Lead with Financial Intelligence in Dentistry

Financial Intelligence, Operational Leadership & Unapologetic Authority

Stop asking for permission to be in the room — you’re already there. This session is for every woman in dentistry, regardless of title, who is ready to stop waiting and start leading. Operational clarity is the backbone of every successful practice, every thriving team, and every woman who leads with authority. When your decisions are rooted in financial intelligence, your leadership stops being reactive and starts being unstoppable.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Operational clarity is not optional — it’s the foundation of every confident leadership decision you’ll ever make.
• Financial intelligence is a leadership skill, not just a finance skill. Women who master it lead with authority on their own terms.
• You already have what it takes. It’s time to own it — unapologetically.

Lorie Streeter

CTC, FAADOM — VP of U.S. Expansion, MaxAssist | Dental Influencer | Performer

Lorie Streeter is a nationally recognized dental leader, speaker, and performer whose career has been defined by courage, reinvention, and connection. With nearly 30 years in the dental industry, she is best known for her leadership as the former Vice President of AADOM, where she helped shape one of dentistry’s most influential professional communities. She has opened for artists including Rascal Flatts, Tracy Byrd, and Garth Brooks, won The Gong Show, and continues to use music as a powerful way to inspire and connect with audiences. Lorie has been recognized as one of the Top 25 Women in Dentistry, received the Soroptimist Citizenship Award, and was honored as Businesswoman of the Year in 2009. Song performed: Fly On…, written by Lorie Streeter.

Fly On… — A Live Opening Performance

Courage, Reinvention & Remembering Who You Are

Before the strategy. Before the metrics. Before the ‘how do I scale this?’… comes the moment we remember who we are. Fly On is a powerful 10-minute opening experience created and performed live by Lorie Streeter. Through music and storytelling, Lorie shares her journey of overcoming fear, illness, loss, and reinvention — and the choice to keep getting back up. This is not a concert or a keynote. It’s a reset. Fly On invites the audience to release self-doubt, let go of perfection, and step into the event feeling lighter, braver, and more open to what’s possible. Because sometimes before you learn how to build the thing… you need to remember you were meant to fly.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Fear may never fully disappear — but you can choose to fly anyway.
• Reinvention and courage are not reserved for the bold. They belong to every woman willing to get back up.
• You were meant to fly — this performance is your reminder.

Maritza Duran

Founder and CEO of MDent Consulting Services

Maritza Duran is the Founder and CEO of MDent Consulting Services. Having risen through every role in the dental practice—from clinical support and front desk to office manager and regional manager—she helped launch and manage 15 practices before founding MDent. A national speaker and educator, she empowers first-time practice owners to build businesses with lasting impact for families, communities, and future generations. MDent’s promise is simple: a dentist’s vision is our mission.

Be the Bridge

Changing Your Family’s Story for Generations

Every family has someone who becomes the turning point. Maritza Duran rose through every role in the dental practice—helping launch and manage 15 practices—before founding her own company. But this talk isn’t about business growth. It’s about what it means to become “the bridge”: the woman who honors the sacrifices of previous generations while creating opportunities that never existed before. Through stories of resilience, entrepreneurship, and purpose, Maritza challenges women to see success as more than personal achievement—and to recognize that breaking generational patterns creates a legacy of possibility for every generation that follows.