you are my chosen family. You gave me so much inspiration, love, strength and sense of belonging. I also am grateful for my small group of Iranian friends in San Diego, with whom I shared the complexity of immigration, and integrating in a new country while celebrating our cultural identity. My family are my roots. No matter how far we live from one another, we are deeply connected. This reminds me of Rumi's poem "Maybe you are searching among the branches, for what only appears in the roots." Mina and Davood, my dear parents, you keep teaching me faith, hard work, love, and integrity. You empowered me to become a strong independent woman but reminded me to keep love and care for others at my core. There is no word I can express my gratitude for you. Andisheh, you are not just my beautiful sister; you are my best friend, my jix! Your love is with me everywhere in every step. We may live in two different hemispheres, but we nourish from the same source. Having you in my life is the evidence of a dream coming true. I couldn't begin to imagine my life without you. I thank you, Soheil and Belfie for being part of my journey. Arash, you are a loving partner and best friend. You made the last two years of graduate school much smoother with bringing good music, laughter, and many magical moments into my life. I am so thankful for all that you taught me, challenged me, and inspired me to be, and for constantly reminding me of my strength and capacities. I would like to end x by thanking my best furry friend, Charlie, who patiently sat with me through many hours of reading and writing and made the flow of my work soft and silky filled with love. x TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Introduction: The emergence of disparate opportunities and challenges in the twenty-first century emphasizes the importance of leadership training in dentistry. Therefore, a reflective, interactive, and collaborative training workshop in this field can positively improve the pioneer dentists' knowledge, mindset, and skillset. Aims This article aimed to share the foundation of the leadership program, design expected outcomes, evaluate the program's effectiveness in a dental school in Iran, and discuss the importance of leadership skills for dentistry students. Design: We conducted a program design and research evaluation based on a mixed-method approach. A two-day leadership development program was developed and held in Alborz dental school in Karaj, Iran. A group of 20 dentistry students participated in the program. Then, the program was evaluated twice, once just after the program and once six months later, Results 90% of the participants rated the course 4 or higher (4.5 on average) on a 5-point satisfaction scale, in which 1 meant utterly dissatisfied and 5 meant completely satisfied. The highest average score was for the Leadership from Inside-out module (4.55 of 5). In addition, the students rated teamwork practice as the most challenging part and presentation skills as the most influential module of the program. Furthermore, according to this survey, 80% of the students will participate in future leadership programs with high satisfaction, and 95% of the students recommended it as an extra-curricular activity for all students in dental school. Conclusion The program's facilitators provided an exceptional opportunity and psychologically-safe environment for students to learn leadership skills. Training leadership as non-clinical skills can be beneficial for dentistry students, and it can positively affect the dental profession and ultimately effective healthcare systems. Therefore, including voluntary leadership courses in undergraduate and postgraduate dental curricula is recommended.

Personal and organizational performance is determined by commitment and both technical and general competencies, including leadership skills. Academia, however, mainly targets technical aspects in its curricular programs. On the other hand, the inter-disciplinary and multi-sector nature of Nutrition necessitates high levels of collaboration between stakeholders. Leadership development is therefore required in Nutrition. This paper describes the endeavor made in Iran and the Middle-East region, aiming at building leadership capacity among nutrition professionals. The empowered human resource is expected to facilitate nutrition security at the national and regional levels. Since 2007, the development process of the initiative has begun through research, bench marking, and consultation. The “learning organizations,” “leadership from inside-out,” and “transformational leadership” frameworks have been employed as underpinning theories. Main topics have been self-awareness, effective communication, shared visioning, trust building, creativity, and motivating. Outbound team-building activities and coaching have also been included. The first workshop of the Iranian Food and Nutrition Leadership Program was held in 2009 in Tehran. The experience expanded to the region as the Middle-East Nutrition Leadership Program (MENLP). The Ph.D. Nutrition programs (at four leading Universities) and Iranian Nutrition Society have been taken as other opportunity windows to develop leadership competencies. Biannual Iranian nutrition congresses have been used as the main media for advocacy purposes. High-satisfaction rates obtained following each training activity. In short, the initiative on “nutrition leadership development” has received growing investment and positive feedback in Iran. Continuous improvement of the initiative, establishment of active alumni networks, building MENLP regional platform, and integrating a monitoring and evaluation system are required to increase the investment returns.