About

My path was not linear, and I am grateful the ride was anything but boring.

The original plan was medicine right up until a routine appointment with my hometown dentist changed everything. He had been my dentist my whole life, and watching how his practice was built on long-term relationships rather than single visits made me reconsider everything. The MCAT was immediately cancelled and I registered for the DAT with two weeks to study, so I bought a book and the rest was history.

After graduating dental school at Marquette in 2005, Arizona was the next stop. My first job was at a group practice and lasted about six months. A practice manager once interrupted me mid root canal, calculator in hand, to negotiate fees with my patient in real time. At this practice, patients were treated like transactions, and it almost made me leave dentistry altogether.

Then a private practice changed everything.

My boss handed me two smile makeover cases in my first month and said, “I’ll come check when you need me. Go.” That was equal parts terrifying and incredible. He pushed me off the cliff into cosmetic dentistry at a very young age, and our best transformative growth comes when we are pushed past comfort. I also learned about patient experience and hospitality in that practice which became an addiction in my nonclinical education.

The obsession that followed led to courses through the Ritz-Carlton, McKinsey, and Harvard Business School online. I read countless books on what separates a good organization from one patients can’t stop talking about. On the clinical side, the Kois Center became the foundation. Being able to go through that continuum within my first five years shaped not just how cases are approached, but how everything is approached, with predictability and systems. IYKYK.

After 5 years of Arizona heat Colorado came next for the mountains and the outdoor life. What was not anticipated was starting from scratch again. Nobody in Denver knew who I was, and rebuilding a reputation as a cosmetic dentist in a new city was a lot of work and yet invaluable. Growing my practice was so nice I did it twice which reinforced the original message from my hometown dentist: the relationships you build with your team, your patients and your community are not a marketing strategy. They are a culture you create.

Practice ownership led eventually to co-founding a group practice that grew to 39 locations. The motivation was originally inspired by curiosity of how to eliminate burnout and desire to work more in my practice rather than on it. Soon after, an injury ended chairside practice for me entirely. That happened right as the pandemic arrived, so I was back to working on the business. The need for pandemic Zoom webinars also gave me an invitation into the teaching world which turned into something much bigger than expected.

Teaching and mentoring dentists has some of the same awesome cup filling emotions as it did to help patients. The impulse is the same: you want to see someone get healthier. It is a genuine love of people and wanting to see them flourish. Alongside the teaching, stepping into the Chief Clinical Director role for our group practice meant 7 years of recruiting and mentoring doctors and teammates across the organization, which forced a depth of learning beyond what private practice alone would have produced. The combo of teaching and leading docs was like a graduate program to understand more about materials, more about business at scale, and more about leadership and communication. Having a clear view across a wide range of practice philosophies and environments tests what works and where weaknesses create failures.

The knowledge and insights gained through these experiences belong in a setting where they can have an even greater impact. Private practices, are you ready for that next phase of growth? Emerging group practices, are you trying to understand where your gaps and gains actually are? Whether the focus is Culture, Capital, or Clinical, we always have an opportunity to define, align, implement and refine our systems.

That is where this work lives. Inside the four walls of our practices, working directly with doctors and teams, the same way it always worked best.

If my journey and experience sounds like something that could be an asset to you, reach out. I can’t wait to be a part of your adventure!