NUEVAS SONRISAS - Key Persons
Amanda is a Spanish/English Healthcare & Community Interpreter. Amanda is also an educator. In addition to certifications as an instructor in different community-based health-related workshops, she is creating and collaborating on workshops on issues of language equity and best practices. Amanda has also worked as a bilingual social worker for multiple agencies including Child Welfare and North Clackamas School District, and as the Executive Director for Los Niños Cuentan, a small local non-profit supporting Latino survivors of domestic violence. Amanda currently lives in Oregon, her home state, but has also lived in Washington DC and El Salvador.
Betty was a Co-Founder of Nuevas Sonrisas Dental Team with Dr. Oscar de Garcia and Emiliano Ibarra in 2008. She has followed her passion to provide preventive care to children in need and educate them about proper dental care that lays a foundation for their health throughout their lives.
Bobbie is a retired educator who loved being a kindergarten teacher in the Hillsboro School District for 19 years after moving from Miami, Florida, where she lived and taught after serving in the Peace Corps in El Salvador. Her passion is working with Spanish-speaking children and helping to make lasting connections between the children and staff in the primary schools in Guatemala and the Nuevas Sonrisas volunteer group traveling there each year.
Char, a licensed clinical social worker, worked in mental health and community organization for more than 3 decades. She now devotes time helping to organize our team to work cohesively and effectively in a rural community of Guatemala, a beloved country where she returns each year.
David has been traveling to Guatemala from his home in Oregon since 2010. He has provided direct dental care and helped organize and design the clinics in the schools in Guatemala. He works with local dental supply companies to help obtain needed supplies for our clinics. When not doing dentistry he spends as much time outside as possible fishing, hiking, and biking.
Job Titles:
- Clinical Dental Hygienist
Dr. Laurie Johnson has been a clinical dental hygienist since 1973, earned a Master of Organizational Communication from Marylhurst University in 1999, and a Doctor of Health Sciences (applied research) from A.T. Still University in 2015. She coordinated the school oral health programs for the Oregon State Public Health Division and the training and certification of over 20 dental sealant programs statewide. She was instrumental in expanding the number of Oregon's schools served by dental sealant programs from 81 schools to 645 schools, with a 99% approval rating from the schools served. She is now retired, but remains active.
Kara is a an American Sign Language/Spanish/English interpreter, and has been an educator of young children most her life. She is a union leader and advocate for health care interpreters. After her first trip to Guatemala serving as a volunteer with Nuevas Sonrisas, she declared herself a "lifer," and has been collaborating with the team ever since. She loves to dance, garden, camp, and drink coffee in her free time.
Kathleen is a retired journalist who was an editor and reporter at The Oregonian newspaper for 25 years. She is an avid outdoors enthusiast and traveler.
Larry is a retired computer nerd who has learned a lot volunteering as a spit wrangler (dental assistant) in these clinics. He spends some of his leisure time rowing sculls or paddling dragonboats on the Willamette River, and still enjoys twiddling a keyboard regularly.
Martin was born in Czech Republic, emigrated in 1968, and then studied and lived in Canada. He moved to Portland, OR in 1986 where he founded two software companies and served them in scientific, engineering, and leadership roles. Martin was on the Board of Directors before and after the first of those companies went public. He was elected Fellow of IEEE for his engineering achievements. Martin is now in the 3rd phase of his life journey of "learn-earn-return", and volunteers as a Small Business Mentor with SCORE, where he also serves as Co-Chair of the Portland, OR chapter. He has a life-long interest in the nonprofit sector and served as a Trustee and Chair at the French American International School and at the Portland Dance Academy. Over the years, he has volunteered numerous times as a facilitator for strategic planning meetings of nonprofit organizations with widely diverse missions.
Job Titles:
- Director Emeritus
- Retired Mechanical Engineer
Ric is a retired mechanical engineer who has thoroughly enjoyed the collaborative challenges and whimsy of setting-up, running and trouble-shooting our portable clinics for over 10 years. He looks forward to the upcoming growth and challenges.
Sue spent 34 years in dental public health work in schools and clinics and on the administrative side. Her knowledge of and contacts with dental product companies is a key factor in our ability to travel to Guatemala with everything we need. Sue has a passion for our mission and even more so for the people of Santa Catarina Mita.
Sue has been with the Nuevas Sonrisas team since 2018. Having retired from teaching Spanish at the college and secondary levels, she now uses her skills in Guatemala as an educator, translator, interpreter and triage assistant in Clinic A. Her life passions are nature, caring for the environment, travel, dragon boating and family/friends. She loves her work in Guatemala with Nuevas Sonrisas.