As a child visiting the dentist, Nancy Avery was a terrible patient. "Every time I sat in that chair," she says, "I wanted to leap up and run away."

Fortunately for Moda, she didn't run very far.

No sooner had Nancy graduated from college than she launched her career in dentistry. "I'd always liked the idea of one day being able to help patients," she says.

She worked first as a dental assistant, then as an office manager. In 1994, she joined Moda (then ODS) to work at DMC. She left for a few years, eventually returning in 2008 to a role with Dental Customer Service. Today, as Manager of Dental Services, she oversees Dental Professional Relations and Dental Medicaid Services.

As for that notion that one day she would help patients... well, today Nancy and her team work directly with 11 of the 15 coordinated care organizations (CCOs) in Oregon, which takes care of 139,000 of our Dental Medicaid members.

The big news with the Dental Medicaid side of our business is that a major rebrand is under way. The official new name is ODS Community Dental.

All this keeps Nancy and her team working closely with our growing network of Arrow Clinics and the launch of the new Arrow Mobile Dental Clinic that will travel around the metro area.

Nancy should feel quite at home if she gets to ride that Clinic Conestoga. She's a fifth generation Oregonian whose family came west in a covered wagon in the 1850s.