Tamara Baca

Background

About Tamara Baca

My name is Tamara D. Baca and I have been a dental professional for many years. I obtained my dental hygiene license in I worked in private practice until I decided I needed to make a difference and became involved in the public health aspect of dentistry. I received my bachelor's of science in dental hygiene in 2012 and my master's degree in public health in 2015, with an emphasis on epidemiology and data collection. After graduation, I took a position with Mountain Park Health Center as one of the state's first Affiliated Practice Dental hygienists (APDH), where I was recruited to start the dental to pediatric integration program. The program has become successful with a total of 6 AP hygienists. I was invited to speak on behalf of MPHC as part of an oral health panel by the National Network of Oral Health Access (NNOHA). The panel discussed what makes programs workable and successful. I was an Operation Manager of the pediatric department for MPHC with 65+ staff ranging from Medical assistants, pediatric providers, integration team, medical interprets, and leads. MPHC received a new dental grant for the Tempe clinic and I was asked to start the dental integration program so I left operations to develop the process. During COVID, I developed a teledental program to address the poor oral hygiene witnessed on patients. I served on the Arizona Dental Hygiene Board as a past treasurer, and board member at large. Currently, I am abstract review for the American Public Health association. For MPHC, I was the diversity site champion, community ambassador and advocate. Prior to my current position, I was the clinic lead/sr. hygienist for the Dignity Health dental clinics where we serve children at the 200% poverty level. What’s amazing is we do not change any money for our preventive services. I was the dental area operations manager for Adalente health center. I manage a total of six dental sites and I’m working to bring integration into the pediatric and WIC departments. Also, implementing EFDA into practice. During my tenure, the main focus was to prepare for joint commission and organized across each of the six clinics, a standard operation, procedures, and policies. After Adelante, I moved from operations to now a dental provider. I am the chair of JEDI program at NOAH and the new integrated dental lead for the AZOHC. I would be willing to do operations as long as a position suitable to my desires and skill set.