Virtual Dental Care and Teledentix

Ria Berger is a seasoned healthcare executive with over 25 years of Strategy, Operations, Business Development, and Human Resources experience in multi-cultural, multi-site locations in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Berger is the CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County, one of the nation's largest oral health care providers for children. She is also the SVP of Dental and Oral Health Division at AltaMed Health Services, the nation’s largest FQHC, until the completion of HSK’s transition to AltaMed in December 2024.

Since the beginning of her tenure at HSK in 2014, the organization has increased its revenue by 250% within three years, tripled in employee headcount and launched an innovative Teledentistry program (one of the largest in the U.S.). Healthy Smiles was awarded Orange County Register’s “One of the Top Workplaces” in 2017, 2018, and 2021, as well as Orange County Business Journal’s “Best Places to Work” in 2022.

Berger served for four years as a member of the Board of Directors at CalOptima (Orange County's single largest health insurer), with $4.2 billion in revenue. She is a National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Governance Fellow.

Berger was previously a VP of Human Resources for several Fortune 500 companies ($2B-42B revenue), Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Tenet Healthcare, and Prospect Medical, to name a few.

She is co-founder of Art 4 Fun, a 26 year-old business headquartered in London, and continues to serve on the Board of Directors.

Ria Berger's greatest strengths are in the successful execution and transformation of world class organizational and business development programs. She has extensive experience in strategy, operations, board recruitment, leadership reorganization, culture transformation, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate partnerships. She masterfully architects innovative systems integration and delivers outstanding results to Fortune 500 companies, private corporations, and nonprofit organizations.

Berger holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California (USC), and has taught HR and business courses at the University of California, Irvine and USC.

With a background in law and management, Neal Crowley has over 30 years of experience as an executive health care leader in the provider, payor and health care technology sectors, with deep expertise in the multi-site dental health management services field.

Neal leverages a strong legal foundation, serving for six years as the Chief Legal Officer for one of the nation’s largest DSOs, Smile Brands Inc., where he was responsible for identifying and implementing legally compliant business solutions for its over 450 affiliated dental practices.

Neal also served as the General Counsel for InterDent, also one of the nation’s largest DSOs with over 200 practice locations across Arizona, California, Hawaii, Kansas, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington.

Previously, Neal served as a Health Care Partner at several large law national firms, including Waller Lansden; Ross & Hardies (now McGuireWoods) and Vedder Price.

In 2020, Neal joined Teledentix and Virtual Dental Care, Inc. (VDC) as the company’s Chief Legal Officer. Neal brings a wealth of industry knowledge to the VDC team to help re-enforce the company’s position as the leading telehealth technology provider.

Neal is licensed in Illinois, Nebraska, Texas, and Tennessee.

Jeff Flocken has a 30+ year successful career in healthcare services in a variety of organization settings.

Currently a member of the Virtual Dental Care, Inc. Board of Directors, Jeff uses his deep understanding of the overall healthcare industry to help guide the company on industry trends and consumer behavior.

Most recently, Jeff was the EVP of Med3000 a technology and physician services company.

Prior to Med3000, Jeff served as the SVP of the California/Nebraska Region of Tenet Healthcare with responsibility for a $2.6B operating budget and 12 acute care hospitals, six ASCs and nine diagnostic imaging centers. While in the region EBITDA growth occurred through restructuring, asset divestiture and cost management initiatives. He also successfully negotiated labor agreements with three different unions on a statewide basis. Physician integration strategies were implemented through clinics, PC structures and development of an Accountable Care Organization Pilot with a major insurer.

From 1997 to 2005 Jeff was with the St. Joseph Health System. He served in several capacities in the areas of health system development, physician practice management, and hospital management.

From 2000 to 2005 he served as SVP/COO for the 14 hospital and ambulatory care clinics with an operating budget of $2.2B. During the five years, the SJHS achieved record operating results, improved cash flows, Moody’s rating, and had over $100M in philanthropy raised. Integrated inpatient and ambulatory electronic health records were implemented across the enterprise.

Prior to 1997, he spent 18 years with Unihealth, a not for profit health system as the CEO of Northridge Hospital Medical Center (1987-1989) and Vice President Medical Centers Division (1995-1997). While there he oversaw major facilities expansion and renovation projects, physician integration efforts, and service expansion.

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Dr. Paul Glassman is the Associate Dean for Research and Community Engagement at the College of Dental Medicine at California Northstate University in Elk Grove, CA and Professor Emeritus at the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni, School of Dentistry in San Francisco, CA.  He has served on many national panels including the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Committee on Oral Health Access to Services which produced the IOM report on Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Vulnerable and Underserved Populations.

Dr. Glassman has had many years of dental practice experience treating patients with complex conditions and has published and lectured extensively in the areas of Hospital Dentistry, Dentistry for Patients with Special Needs, Dentistry for Individuals with Medical Disabilities, Dentistry for Patients with Dental Fear, Geriatric Dentistry, and Oral Health Systems reform.  He has a long career working with special populations in a variety of practice and community settings.  Dr. Glassman has been PI or Co-PI on over $30 million in grants and contracts over the last 30 years devoted to community-service demonstration and research programs designed to improve oral health for people with disabilities and other underserved populations.

Dr. Glassman is a pioneer and has led the national movement to improve oral health using telehealth-connected teams and Virtual Dental Homes.

Finally Dr. Glassman has been prominent in advocacy efforts on a state and national level for health system reform to improve oral health systems for a wide variety of underserved groups.

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Dr. Mitali Hariawala is currently the Vice President of Professional Relations, managing enterprise clients and strategic partnerships. Since 2018, she has been a key member of the management team.

Dr. Mitali is a general dentist by training, having earned her Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry, Magna Cum Laude, from Boston University. Passionate for the underserved, she practiced dentistry at the South End Community Health Center.

Beyond dentistry, she has a breadth of knowledge with a BS in Human Physiology, BA in Psychology, and a MS in Nutrition from Columbia University. As an active member of the scientific community, she has written and defended several thesis papers. Outside of academia, she spearheaded the very first patient liaison program in the Emergency Department at Harvard’s BIDMC, which focused on improving satisfaction in care.

She pivoted from clinical practice and joined oral care start-up quip, pre-series A, as the first dental professional on the team. In her role, she grew quip’s dental community to 10,000+ and while doing so, developed skills in marketing, operations, and project management. Dr. Mitali brings a unique perspective with her background in healthcare, business, and entrepreneurship.

Dr. Jackson is currently the co-founder and COO of Virtual Dental Care, Inc., a telehealth technology company founded in 2016. 

Bill practiced clinical dentistry for 10 years, while creating a small Knox-Keene licensed managed dental plan in Los Angeles, which was acquired by Prudential Healthcare in 1985. He became President of the Dental Division in 1990. In 1994, shortly after Blue Cross of California went public as Wellpoint Healthcare Networks, he was hired by Wellpoint to run their national dental division.  

In 1998, Bill left Wellpoint to start Dental Connect, the industry’s first real-time dental claims clearinghouse. The company later merged with DentalXChange, which grew to the largest real time clearinghouse in the industry. 

Upon the sale of DentalXChange in 2004, Bill helped start Planet DDS, Inc., the company that created the cloud-based dental practice management software, Denticon, which was focused on the needs of DSOs. Bill exited Planet DDS after its sale in 2016. 

Robert Klein has held executive roles across a wide spectrum of the healthcare industry with a focus on physician groups, health insurance plans, and hospital systems. Robert has domain expertise in general management, marketing, sales, product, communications, governmental affairs, business development, and joint ventures/partnerships.

As an independent consultant, Robert’s current clients include two private equity firms focused on value based healthcare delivery systems, a multi-state hospital system, and a multi-specialty medical group.

From 2008 to 2015, Robert served as the National Vice President of HealthCare Partners reporting to the COO and Co-Chairman of the Board. HealthCare Partners was the largest privately held medical group in the US with approximately 1,400 employed physicians, 14,000 independent clinicians, 230 contracted hospitals, 18 affiliated health insurance plans, and provided care to more than 1,300,000 patients. 

Prior to HealthCare Partners, Robert held leadership roles at UnitedHealthcare, PacifiCare, DirectFit, Taco Bell, and Coca-Cola Foods.

Robert sits on the Board of Directors for DSA Phototech and the Advisory Board for Burnish Creative.

Robert grew up in Swampscott, MA. Robert earned his BA from The Johns Hopkins University earned his MBA at the University of Chicago.  Robert and his wife live in Irvine, CA and their two grown up children live in metro Los Angeles.  Robert has served on several non-for profit boards and loves hiking and reading. 

Dr. Harvey Lee currently serves as the Chief Clinical Officer for Virtual Dental Care, Inc. (VDC), providing real-world expertise in the continuous development of VDC’s innovative software, including Teledentix.

Dr. Harvey is a pediatric dentist by specialty training and board certified by the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry. Dr. Harvey obtained a Master of Public Health with the emphasis in Healthcare Administration at Loma Linda University, prior to earning his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. He also holds an MBA from the Zapara School of Business at La Sierra University.

He completed a pediatric dental residency program at the Cornell University-affiliated St. Barnabas Hospital, Bronx, New York. After residency, in conjunction with private practice he also held a faculty appointment at Columbia University and served as the Chief/Program Director of Pediatric Dentistry at Harlem Hospital, New York. 

Dr. Harvey most recently served as the the Chief Dental Officer for Healthy Smiles for Kids Orange County where oversaw all clinical programs, including Smiles X-Press Teledentistry, an innovative new dental initiative serving classrooms and community sites.

Dr. Harvey has a private practice in Irvine with his wife who is an Endodontist. Weekends are just as busy if not busier than the week by keeping their three boys entertained. 

Richard has 32 years of dental technology experience and is one of the dental industry’s most successful information technology entrepreneurs, having founded DentalXChange, Planet DDS, and Virtual Dental Care.

DentalXChange is the industry’s leading connectivity company that launched the industry’s first internet-based, HIPAA compliant, real-time claims processing and eligibility verification system used by major insurance carriers.

Planet DDS and its’ flagship product Denticon is the industry’s premier enterprise practice management system. As CEO, Richard guided the company to become the leading Cloud-Based Practice Management and Revenue Cycle Management company for DSO's. 

After successful exists with both companies, Richard founded Virtual Dental Care with Dr. Bill Jackson to continue their passion and mission to bring innovative technologies to the global healthcare community. Throughout his career, Richard has become known for his unique ability to successfully adapt new technologies into volatile markets.

Richard has a passion for helping families and kids in the underserved communities and served as Chairman and currently a Board Director of Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County, the largest dental not-for-profit in Orange County, CA. To date Healthy Smiles for Kids has provide free dental services to over 800,000 kids and families in the Southern CA area.

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Bruce Silverman is an experienced dental insurance executive with a track-record of achieving exceptional results. Bruce is the former Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of Delta Dental of New Jersey, having spent 26+ years delivering industry leading operational results as well as providing an outstanding customer experience for dentists and members, creating exceptional year over year membership growth and profitability.

Bruce is well-known for being an innovative thought leader and strategist. He embraces new and emerging technologies and, over a 35+ year career, has successfully designed/led/delivered several complex organizational strategic initiatives including a full claims system replacement. Also, while at Delta Dental, Bruce’s expertise was used by the Delta Dental Plans Association on several national initiatives.

Bruce is currently President and CEO of BD Silverman Consulting (BDSC). Started in 2016, numerous organizations have retained services from BDSC to help achieve their strategic objectives. The Mission of BDSC is “To Perform the Actions Necessary to Quickly Deliver to Healthcare Organizations the Results Desired, Through a Combination of Operational and Technological Expertise, Innovative Thinking, Proven Leadership, and a Passion for Excellence.” 

Since January 2019, Bruce has been an Advisor to Virtual Dental Care in the areas of Product Strategy, Business Development, and Strategic Partnerships.

Bruce earned a BA in Psychology from the State University of NY at Binghamton and an MBA in Business Policy from Bernard Baruch College in New York City.

Vincent Cardillo is a proven industry leader with over 25+ years of experience in leadership/partner roles growing DSOs. He has a successful track record of structuring, growing and positioning dental groups for rapid growth. Vincent’s latest ranked #14 on the 2014 INC 500 list of fastest growing private companies with growth of 12,896%. Vincent is the founder of Maeva Dental Advisors, which provides outsourced C-Suite services to dental groups and single offices that have the intention of growing. Maeva positions its clients for long-term growth by strengthening their operational systems and infrastructure. Vincent also provides his expertise in operations, strategy, and financing to private equity firms and other financial institutions nationally and internationally looking to make an investment in a DSO.