Dental Assistant Extraordinaire Kolleen is the esteemed Crown Council’s Most Valuable Team Member for 2016. Here’s why.
Kolleen Palmer, RDA, has been a vital part of our Temple City Dental Care practice for the past 12 years. And Kolleen is an amazingly skilled dental assistant; she anticipates, she’s organized, she has remarkable initiative…but she is so much more.
Kolleen has been the glue holding us all accountable for our intention of “…making a world class difference for others and making dentistry fun” while engaging our team and patients as “friends and family serving friends and family.”
Kolleen actually campaigns for feedback on a daily basis; she receives input and gives support the way you’d hope your brother or sister would. Kolleen truly walks the talk and her most disarming quality is that she is totally authentic; Kolleen doesn’t have to think about helping a team member or making a patient feel liked or safe; she only needs to be Kolleen.
Kolleen can be given a project or a new assignment and whether it’s assuming leadership in our award-winning Invisalign department or taking the lead in developing sleep dentistry for our practice or just getting me to sign everything I need to sign, I NEVER lose a second of sleep over concerns that Kolleen won’t generate a complete and first-class result.
And while Kolleen and I entertain patients all day long with our friendly 8-hour banter/debates I’ve never seen anyone better at putting smiles on nervous patients’ faces. Kolleen gives compliments the way Mozart composed symphonies. I’ve lost count of the number of patients who’ve told me about a note they received from Kolleen that said just the right thing at just the right time.
Our practice, in addition to being a long-time Smiles for Life participant, also selects a cause-related theme for every month. Kolleen headed up Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. And our office was basically transformed; there was absolutely no way anyone visiting us wasn’t “thinking pink.” Last year, Kolleen and I presented our Smiles for Life check to our local, national, and global treasure, City of Hope. On the way back to the car, we noticed all kinds of Post-it sized notes hanging beautifully from trees lining the entrance to the amazing research hospital. The notes provoked thought, smiles, and tears…and as cancer patient, the late Coach Jim Valvano once memorably shared, those were all the ingredients for a “great day.”
Kolleen only met Walter Hailey once, but I know she already knew how to copy heartfelt genius. Our office was adorned with messages written on small pink squares of paper that remain impossible not to read…to this day. Kolleen’s favorite note reads “Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible.’”-Audrey Hepburn.
I don’t know how anyone could better typify the heart and soul of a culture than Kolleen does ours. And I don’t know about stuff like “Most Valuable,” I just know our best without Kolleen wouldn’t be in the same ballpark as our best with her.
