Dr Susan Wise

Dr Susan Wise is a Melbourne specialist periodontist and served as President of the Australian Dental Association (Victorian branch) in 2017-2018. One of 17 women and 34 men in her University of Melbourne graduating class in 1994, she is a leader of an Australian professional association where women now outnumber men. While women have held leadership positions in the ADA (Vic Branch) before her, Susan is the first Jewish woman and the first mother with primary school aged children to take on the role of President.

Needless to say, even with the help of a ‘fantastic, amazing’ husband, the combination of mothering, running a home, running a practice and performing professional leadership responsibilities has created its challenges. ‘In meetings,’ she says, ‘I will be texting my mother in law; don’t forget to pick up Benjamin for this or that, don’t forget the tennis racquet. My husband does most of the pickups and drop offs, and most of the cooking. But I am the one who still has to organise things.’ As all working mothers know, she says ‘The hardest thing is the juggling.’

It’s a juggle, however, that has been well worth the effort. During her presidential tenure, she oversaw the development of a new strategic plan for the ADA that has streamlined operations going forward, making the plan more user-friendly and the association more likely to engage members. She has always seen it as her role to mentor young women in the professions, given that she benefited from mentoring herself. Her legacy, she hopes, will be to leave a ‘straightforward’ plan and ‘well organised’ platform for the incoming president. She’s also demonstrated to women who want to take up leadership roles in professional organisations that, with a low key approach and a lot of planning, you don’t have to be superwoman to do it.

Despite the challenges, she encourages other women to ask for opportunities to be involved, as she did. ‘If someone had told me as a graduate in 1994 that I would be the president of the ADA, I would have said ‘get real’, not a chance. So I’ve achieved more than I could have hoped!’

Tell us a bit about your family history and upbringing

I was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1972 and lived most of my life in the south-eastern suburbs. I’m the middle child in a family of three girls. My mother was born in Broken Hill and came to Melbourne as a 12 year old. My father was born in Poland and came to Melbourne via New Zealand. He was one year old when his mother and father arrived in Wellington, NZ in 1935. Despite enjoying their respective childhoods in Broken Hill and New Zealand, both my parents eventually ended up in Melbourne so that they could be part of a larger Jewish Community. They met on Australia Day in 1968 and married in December of that year. My father was a GP and my mother did telemarketing work, which she loved. But she was a terrible cook! My father was the cook – he was always in the kitchen and his garage was full of cookbooks.

Gender, feminism and growing up

I think Dad had a bigger role in bringing us up than was the case in other families. He was more of a feminist model than my mother was…perhaps because he was brought up by a progressive mother? He loved having daughters. He thought daughters were terrific.

My Dad always encouraged us to study. We knew from the age of three that we would go to university. That was not negotiable. Was it because we are Jewish, because my Dad was university educated, because my grandmother couldn’t go to university? I don’t know. But we all knew we would be going to university, we would all have an education. My Dad always said ‘you must be educated because you never know what the future holds.’ His mother was a widow, he’d say ‘you’ve got to be independent’. There was always a belief that you could do anything you want, except maybe an orthodox rabbi or a catholic priest! We were always going to have a job. There was no question. It was expected of us.

Why dentistry?

I first thought I wanted to study medicine but, for various reasons, my father talked me out of it. Even in those days he talked about bullying in the hospitals. ‘Dentistry is a great job,’ he said. ‘You use your hands, you talk to people – be a dentist!’ So there was that encouragement. And when I was at Mt Scopus in Year 7, my maths teacher was talking about her daughters, and off the cuff, said that they were studying dentistry. And that was the first time I realised a girl could be a dentist. It was the first time I thought that I could be a dentist.

Studying dentistry was great. I never felt discrimination because of the field I went into. I had female lecturers and professors. We had female demonstrators. We didn’t get bullied.

Working in the field there is a lot to like, as a woman. It’s a good independent job. You use your hands. You are quite creative. It involves a lot of people skills. It’s a great job. I love being a dentist!

Leadership opportunities

When I was a dental student there was a Jewish dental group call Alpha Omega. I was enthusiastic and got involved. I was appointed president in 1997. I have also served as President of the Periodontics society. I was secretary at the Women Dentists Association.

After living in Sydney for a while, I moved back to Melbourne and went to the Australian Dental Association and asked how I could get involved. They told me to put my name down for some committees, and I was asked to chair one, despite having no idea how to do so! I was on the Oral Health Care Committee for twelve years.

I have enjoyed my time in leadership, but as a leader, you also need to know when to step away. I'm thinking now of scaling back my involvement on boards. I'll stay on council as immediate past president and then get off. It isn’t good for past presidents to hang around for too long. I’m sure they will find something for me to do! I can achieve a lot in any case

I have not served on any Jewish community organisations but I have been secretary of the Korean Adoption Families Society.

The role of faith and Judaism in your life

I went to Jewish schools in my early years but completed my education at Presbyterian Ladies’ College, because it was, in my father’s words, ‘a science school’. Understanding my Jewish heritage and identity is important and it has evolved. The most recent time of thinking about Jewish identity for me was going through the adoption process for our son, Benjamin.

We always knew that adoption would be the way we were going to have children. My son is from South Korea. So we have a Jewish Australian Korean family! He goes to Mount Scopus because we want him to have part of his identity a Jewish identity.

We are Jewish, that is part of us. But that is our history; it is not our son’s history. We looked at converting him through the orthodox way and they made it so difficult, we joined a progressive or liberal synagogue. There is still a protective notion about bringing outside in and they are going to have to change. People are adopting and they need to bring these members of the family in. People’s parents aren’t always Jewish and you want to embrace them. We are a tiny religion and we will disappear if we aren’t careful. You don’t want to make it easy, but it shouldn’t be unachievable. Having been through a lot with the adoption, we took another route.

We joined the reformed synagogue and the requirements they asked for were that we had to prove we are Jewish. We have our Ketubah (marriage certificate). Benjamin was circumcised and we have the letter from the surgeon to confirm that. We took him to the beach at St Kilda for his Mikvah.

We enjoy the progressive synagogue. Women are involved. Women go up to the Torah, they are involved in the sermons. I’m really happy there. As a female I am much more comfortable. We go to Bat Mitzvahs and girls do the entire service and my husband thinks it is terrific. He would not want girls not to do the same as a boy.

We also like it because we are able to sit together. And I want to see women doing stuff.

Jewish women leaders and leadership

We have some terrific role models, in our synagogue community and the community at large. Deborah Stone used to be at the Age newspaper and was the editor of the Australian Jewish News. She writes amazing sermons. She is a great example of Jewish feminism. There are others who are terrific, but Deborah in particular brings the studies of the Torah to us in a wonderful way. It is a joy to listen to her!

And then there is our governor, Linda Dessau. She is wonderful. Nina Bassat…there are some really great role models of Jewish women's leadership moving more into the mainstream. They are moving out of community organisations into more mainstream leadership, but taking a sense of community with them. As the first Jewish female president of an ADA branch I feel like I am engaging more broadly in leadership issues and making a mark in the community at large.

What do women bring to leadership? Engagement, preparedness, organisation and good communication. We don't have time for long meetings, so do what we can to simplify things!