Dental Hygiene Professor Honored for Community Service

St. Andrew Catholic Church in northeast Portland recently named Pacific University Dental Hygiene assistant professor Wilber Ramirez-Rodriguez '10 its 2015 Neil Kelly Community Service Award honoree.

Ramirez-Rodriguez supervises Pacific’s Smile Care Everywhere program, in which dental hygiene students provide services using portable dental equipment to people with limited access to healthcare.

St. Andrew Catholic Church honored Ramirez-Rodriguez at its annual Neil Kelly Memorial Auction on Nov. 14 for services provided to by Smile Care Everywhere, in partnership with Promotores de Salud and Providence Health & Services, to those in need at the St. Andrew Community Center.

Ramirez-Rodriguez received the Oregon Public Health Institute’s 2013 Emerging Leader Award for his work through Pacific’s Smile Care Everywhere program.