MEET OUR TEAM
Board of Directors
Nan Portmann, RDH, COSE
Board of Directors Chair
Nan has been working in clinical hygiene since graduating with high honors in 2009. Periodontics and teaching are her passions which lead her to found her own dental education company offering innovative and advanced professional development continuing education programs. Nan leads two dynamic hygiene study clubs, actively trains dental endoscopy implementation, and advocates for integrated medical/dental collaboration within her community. Nan believes hygienists possess a specialized and valuable skill set to profoundly transform healthcare advancement with opportunities to become intrinsically involved in prevention protocols and implementation within independent and non-traditional settings.
Colette Murray, RDH, IRDH
Membership Director
Colette has been in preventive dentistry as a Registered Dental Hygienist since 2001. She has worked in private general practice for over a decade and currently operates an Independent Mobile Dental Hygiene practice in the city of Calgary, Canada called Access Dental Hygiene Services. She participates in the mentor-ship of entrepreneurial dental hygienists starting their own independent practices and operates a centralized reprocessing center for other mobile providers. In the past several years she has taken a special interest in the oral systemic connection to further assist her clients that range from 3 to over 100 years of age. She is currently a member of the American Academy for Oral Systemic Health. She served as the project manager, author and co-editor of the book Get Your Spit Together.
Karen Thomas, MSc, CNS, LN, LDN, BS, RDH, FDN-P, CHHC
Education Director
Karen is the CEO and Founder of Holistic Digestive Solutions and sits on the board of the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition. She’s a Licensed Nutritionist, Supervisor for the North Carolina Board of Nutrition Specialists, a Certified Biological Dental Hygienist, a Certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Practitioner, Certified Integrative Nutrition® Health Coach, a motivational speaker, educator, and award-winning author of Overwhelmed & Undernourished: Use Food as Medicine and Turn Your Life Around, and the 2020 Recipient of the Sunstar/RDH Award of Distinction. She also holds a Master’s of Science in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine.
She currently works with private clients in addition to working with physicians who seek her counsel on finding the root causes of mysterious autoimmune diseases for their own patients. Karen uses functional medicine laboratory testing to accomplish this. She then designs bio-individual protocols to aid in reversing chronic health diseases.
LaNeidra Williams, MBA, BS, RDH
Communications Director
LaNeidra is a Mississippi native who has worked in the dental hygiene industry for 13 years. She sits on our Board of Directors and is also our Social Media Manager. She received her Bachelors of Dental Hygiene from the University of Mississippi Medical Center and her Masters of Business Administration with a Healthcare Administration Concentration from Belhaven University. LaNeidra has worked in the public health sector for over 5 years. She has worked on the medical-dental integration workforce with the Mississippi State Department of Health - Office of Oral Health as a Regional Oral Health Consultant and created diabetes oral health education on the Mississippi State Department of Health Diabetes Board.
LaNeidra is currently employed with TMF Health Quality Institute as a Healthcare Quality Improvement Specialist focusing on oral care quality improvement in the long term care setting. She is also the creator of The Social ExperiMINT, a social media and event management company solely for the dental professional. She is a current member of the National Association of Healthcare Quality, Mississippi Oral Health Community Alliance, Mississippi Tobacco Free Coalition and Diabetes Coalition of Mississippi.
Jennifer Howard, RDH, BS, MCM
Secretary
Jennifer Howard is the National Hygiene Mentor and Educator for Pure Dental Brands. She has been a hygienist for over 30 years and is also a full time women’s pastor. Jennifer is very passionate about the systemic oral health connection and spends most of her time traveling and educating Pure Dental Hygienists around the country. She has an associate in Applied Science, her bachelors in Science and Religion, her masters degree in Christian Ministry and Discipleship and recently got accepted into the Doctorate of Strategic Leadership Program at Liberty University.
Carla L Watts RDH, BS, COSE
Treasurer
Carla started out in Dentistry as a CDA and pivoted to dental hygiene in 1990. During her 30 years as an RDH she has observed dentistry “speculate” that there is an oral systemic link to the research proving this link. She has been and continues to be an advocate both within and outside the dental arena to educate on the importance of connecting the medical and dental field. Carla is passionate about incorporating a real-world solution/process for primary care medical facilities to incorporate a proactive vs reactive medical/dental partnership.
Charo Earle, RDH, BS, MSA, COSE
Board Member at Large
Charo has been in the dental industry since 1999 and is a Senior Clinical Service Manager in Michigan. Charo enjoys her role by partnering with Operations and Clinical Strategy Leaders to train, develop, and lead hygiene teams to achieve personal and professional goals, while delivering comprehensive patient care. She has always been passionate about educating, volunteering, and giving back to others. Her passion was ignited in hygiene school while doing rounds in senior nursing centers where dental care was almost non-existent, and working in highly state funded practices, where dental IQ and prevention were low. Charo truly enjoys helping people and being of service to those in need. She knows what she was called to do as she states– “Helping other People is my Passion & my Purpose!”
Admin Team
Megan Ruetter, DHSc, RDH
Curriculum Director
Megan Reutter, RDH, DHSc is a dental hygienist, educator, and oral health advocate. She has worked in a variety of settings, including clinical practice, education, and public health. She serves as a Trustee and Student Relations Chair for the Illinois Dental Hygiene Association. Megan’s research interest is interprofessional education and has presented her research at several seminars. She is passionate about educating the public and other health professions on the oral-systemic link.
Megan’s Doctorate focused on Leadership and Organizational Behavior from A.T. Still University. In addition to interprofessional education, she is also passionate about leadership and evaluating leadership roles in multidisciplinary teams.
Dr. Reutter works in private practice and serves as adjunct faculty at multiple universities including Parkland College in the dental hygiene program, University of Illinois in the Community Health program, and Campbell University in the Doctor of Health Sciences program.
Jamie Dooley, RDH, BIS, CLBC
Founder & Executive Director
Jamie is a program developer, thought leader, and change agent. She worked 15 years full time as a clinical hygienist before going back to school for healthcare & nonprofit management, at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. She found she excelled at developing innovative programs and managing complex projects. After spending 6 years in public health launching a dental Medicaid clinic, developing a school-based sealant program that served 12 low-income schools, and piloting oral health integration in a large healthcare system, she started our organization in 2018. Her goal is to introduce new programs and systems to the medical model which include registered dental hygienists as important members of interdisciplinary care. Jamie and her team hope to prevent oral-systemic disease, and increase access to care and health equity on a national level.
View our list of Founding Members who made our initial development possible
