My journey out of the op is a winding road, and I have a feeling there are more twists and turns ahead yet! In 2010 I was a single mom struggling to pay my bills. I was tired of wearing scrubs every day, my body ached, I didn’t have health insurance. I have a special needs daughter and she had 13 providers at that time. Her appointments and school challenges were requiring me to leave or skip work far too often. Clinical hygiene was not something I could sustain until retirement. I needed something administrative. Did I know what I was going to do instead? Nope. I took a leap of faith and was in school to complete a Bachelor of Integrative Studies. I wanted to bridge healthcare and nonprofit administration, with an emphasis on grant writing. I hoped I might work at her children’s hospital as they had been such a blessing to us.

I completed a 4 month unpaid internship at that hospital foundation, and was a shoe-in for a position there. I felt I knew my calling. Then they didn’t hire me. In fact, I went on six grant management interviews and was told over and over I was their “2nd choice, but didn’t have enough experience.”

I did what all hygienists do who can’t find a job aligned with their new degree. I temped. And at my 2nd temp job, I realized why I didn’t get those grant jobs…there was something far more aligned for me waiting. The private practice dentist I was temping for hired me as a clinical hygienist/hygiene manager, then I went nonclinical as their treatment coordinator, then I opened a 5 chair nonprofit Medicaid clinic for them, and I was the Executive Director and Office Manager. I wasn’t above putting on a lab coat to snap a PA or deliver anesthesia to keep us on track. I didn’t think of myself as a leader. I was just part of an amazing team.

In 2014 I landed my dream job. I was hired by my alma mater to develop a grant funded school-based sealant and education program for 12 low income schools, managing the dental hygiene students as providers to expand the workforce in a HPSA. I had an amazing benefit package and health insurance, even a 401K! I was in heaven. My title was “Community Outreach Coordinator.” I drove a van full of mobile dental equipment around every day, and once again, my body ached. For the 2nd half of the grant period, I was tasked with integrating oral health into a healthcare system. Whoa. The challenges were far too numerous to go into here, but it was eye opening enough for me to know that when the grant funding period was over, I needed to do something BIG. I have always been intuitive and saw a future where hygienists were working with all types of providers, not just dentists. I had to step outside of my comfort zone and lead the way.

I had been offering 1:1 coaching to hygienists who wanted to expand beyond clinical practice like I had done, so I knew what they were stuck on. I’ve coached over 500 hygienists over the years and they struggle with three main things: imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and overwhelm. They didn’t feel confident and they didn’t know where to start to gain confidence. 

I carried out a needs assessment and found out they craved higher levels of education, similar to what they experienced in school, but more affordable and flexible. I founded National Network of Healthcare Hygienists (NNHH) in 2018, with a small group of passionate friends at the ADHA conference. Google certificate programs had just launched on Coursera and I decided to learn how to build and manage websites and online programs. I taught myself and asked my clients and friends if they would be willing to share their expertise with other hygienists to help us all RISE. I am so grateful so many said yes. We have to stop competing and begin collaborating with each other more and more to ever gain the autonomy and freedom of governing ourselves.

We could see a future for us that few could. We saw ourselves working collaboratively as leaders of prevention of chronic diseases. We saw ourselves working in medical settings offering oral-systemic health coaching; educating providers and patients, offering assessments and managing referrals to dental homes. We saw ourselves as oral-systemic specialists in specific areas of medicine, speaking at medical conferences. And now, 7 years later, our certificate holders email me regularly to tell me they are doing all of the above and so much more!

In August of 2024 we achieved a HUGE first…our Oral Systemic Educator Certificate Program became the first ANSI Accredited ASTM E2659 program in dentistry in the world. It nearly took us out. I had imposter syndrome and felt overwhelmed the entire time, because there was no room for perfectionism, but I kept taking one step after the other. It’s a mark of quality and excellence you will not find in any other dental program. And it is built by hygienists, for hygienists with zero sponsorships. I am so proud of us!

It’s now 2025 and certificate programs at NNHH are having a huge impact on our profession. They are between regular dental CE and a degree and available to any English speaking hygienist worldwide. It’s validation that you don’t need to know what you are doing to have an impact. You just have to be willing to learn as you go and not willing to give up.

We just launched Deb and Jessica’s Leadership Certificate Program™ and it is 100% what I wish I would have had when I started my leadership journey in 2012. I went $30,000 in debt to learn most of what they cover in 7 hours. In fact, they cover more than I learned!

Education

• Associate Degree in Dental Hygiene 1997

• Bachelor of Integrative Studies 2012

• Life Coach Certificate 2017

• Expert Business CoachCertificate 2018

• Marketing Certificate 2019

• HeartMath Certificate: Building Personal Resilience 2021

• Trauma Healing Certificate with Bessel Van Der Kolk 2022