There’s an old saying in volunteer organizations: When you have a big job to be done, look for someone who’s already busy.

That’s the approach WSDA members have taken in electing Dr. Ashley Ulmer to serve as the next president of the Washington State Dental Association.

In addition to leading a successful dental practice in Spokane and taking on leadership roles within WSDA, she volunteers with Spokane’s Inland Dental Expanded Access (IDEA) Clinic, helps out with her family’s business, is active in her church, avidly gardens, and is even an award-winning powerlifter! 

Home Is Where Her Heart Is

Despite her many interests and commitments, Ulmer considers herself a homebody. She and her husband Erik Gilbertson, an electrical contractor, live in a comfortable bungalow in a modest North Spokane neighborhood, across the street from the house in which she grew up.

Her brother Justin lives in that house now, with her parents, Ron and Rhonda, occupying an apartment over the garage. Another brother Auston lives just down the street, so it seems like a family compound, a feeling reinforced when one of the brothers swings by on a riding mower to cut her lawn. Her father runs a commercial roofing company and serves as a lay pastor at their church. Both brothers work with him in the business and Ulmer chips in to help with some of the bookkeeping.

“My dad is my hero,” Ulmer says. “He grew up here, too, so his roots in the community are deep. He does a lot of work for people who need help; not just going to fundraisers but giving people jobs and mentoring them. I’ve learned a lot from him.”

Given such close family ties, it didn’t come as much of a surprise when it was time to choose a college and she opted to remain nearby, attending Eastern Washington University. While at Eastern, she was considering some kind of medical career, but fate intervened with the need to have a couple cavities filled. While in her dentist’s office, something “just clicked,” she says. “The mix of the profession and the business activity of the office was so alluring.”

She spent a year going into that office to observe and learn as much as she could about the profession before heading over the mountains to attend the University of Washington School of Dentistry. After graduating from dental school in 2003, she spent two years in residencies with the Veteran’s Administration in San Antonio and Seattle.

“Working at the VA was a very powerful opportunity,” she recalls. “There was an unending population of patients and almost no limits on resources, so we could really concentrate on the care we were providing. I learned a lot.”

^{Dr. Ulmer sees a patient at her Spokane family dental practice, “Smiles by Dr. Ashley.”}

Saved by WSDA

Returning to Spokane in 2005, she bought a solo practice. But things were rocky at first. The practice had plenty of patients on the books, but that didn’t mean they were active or coming in for regular check-ups or other care.

Looking back on those early days, Ulmer says, “It was a tumultuous time, because I didn’t realize that I was starting from a deficit position. I slowly learned the business aspects of running a successful practice. I was funneling all my money back into the practice, and it took time to make it successful.”

Along the way, Ulmer got involved with her local Spokane District Dental Society and with WSDA.

“WSDA saved me,” she says. “I was working on a practice that wasn’t yet thriving and I felt isolated. It was so good to come together with others for camaraderie, mentorship, and advice. At every meeting, I’d pick up some pearls of wisdom to apply to my practice.”

Today, Ulmer’s “Smiles by Dr. Ashley” family dentistry practice is thriving. It’s a highly personal practice, with no associate dentists, and a relatively small staff of two hygienists, two assistants, and one front-office employee. The structure provides the flexibility to accommodate Ulmer’s volunteer pursuits, including her commitment to WSDA.

“I’ve crafted my practice to work around my WSDA involvement and allow me the time to stay involved,” she says. “The knowledge you receive from the members and the info you receive from the association, especially if you take the time to be involved, makes you a better dentist.”

Her approach to time management reinforces what Ulmer thinks makes a successful dental practice.

“To have a successful practice, you first need to have your own definition of success. You need to know yourself and build your practice model in a way that makes you happy to go to work. Whether you want the business management responsibility or want to just focus on care, for instance. If you don’t feel good about how you’re spending your time, you’re not going to be treating your patients well. Even if you’re making lots of money, it won’t be satisfying.”

^{Dr. Ulmer’s dental practice, “Smiles by Dr. Ashley,” is a highly personal practice, with no associate dentists, and a relatively small staff of two hygienists, two assistants, and one front-office employee.}

Moving Into Leadership

Eventually, Ulmer decided that she and her practice were in a position where she could begin serving in WSDA leadership: “I felt strongly that it was my chance to give back for the way WSDA took care of me.”

After serving on the board for about a decade, she began what she calls “an organic progression” through the officer chairs. Now, stepping into the presidency, Ulmer brings a combination of gender, geography and age to the position which hasn’t been represented in two decades. Not only is she a woman from Eastern Washington, but she will also be one of the youngest WSDA presidents ever.

That could be why one of her top priorities as president is inclusion. 

“At both the ADA and WSDA, we’re trying to make our associations look more like the profession and more like the patients we serve. We want to get anyone who is interested in an issue to step forward and get involved. We want to hear different voices from different backgrounds and different types of practices. Everyone has something to add to make the profession better,” she declares. She adds that WSDA has created a work group on diversity, equity and inclusion to gather ideas on what can be done operationally and ideologically to make WSDA an even more welcoming environment for a diverse membership serving a diverse public.

“Everyone brings their own stuff to the table and teams need to work out how to get through all of that to make progress as a team.”

“During the pandemic, I really appreciated the diversity of WSDA’s communications with the board and the membership. We couldn’t have in-person meetings, but the organization did a good job in maintaining meaningful outreach,” she says. “Now that we can meet face-to-face again, we have a great opportunity, provided we have clear intentions behind every communication and action we take.”

Cindy Pauley, who knows something about what it takes to successfully lead WSDA, has no doubt that Ulmer will make the most of the opportunity.

“Ashley has an amazing gift of seeing people for who they are and listening hard to what they are saying and where they are coming from with honesty and integrity,” Pauley says. “I’m proud to have this incredible woman representing us around the state and the country in the coming year.”

Dr. Nathan Russell, who has been friends with Ulmer since they studied human anatomy together in their first year of dental school, agrees.

“She loves life and people, and is a well-rounded, good-intentioned individual,” Russell says. “She listens and is extremely good at consensus building.”

In keeping with her emphasis on good communication and consensus building, Ulmer recently sent every WSDA board member a copy of High Conflict, a New York Times bestseller that focuses on effective communication. She sees strong communication as a key in the coming year. It’s no accident that she has read the book, as she commits herself to reading at least one book on leadership or a health-related subject each quarter — a goal that’s routinely exceeded.

A Changing Profession

Even with the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic beginning to ease, Ulmer will be stepping into the WSDA presidency at a time when the profession faces serious challenges.

At the top of that list is staffing.

“Finding and keeping good, quality staff is a major challenge. It’s a lot of work ensuring that they’re trained, that they have positive attitudes, and that they recognize their role in the team,” she explains. “The supply of qualified candidates is way down.”

Ulmer points to a number of WSDA initiatives helping to address this challenge, including the partnership on workforce issues with Delta Dental, efforts to support the Shoreline Community College hygiene program at the UW School of Dentistry, legislative proposals to expand scope for dental auxiliaries, and the work of a new WSDA task force examining what it will take to train more dental hygienists and dental assistants.

“We need to be doing more outreach,” she argues. “Starting at the junior high level, we need young people to understand what careers in dentistry are all about.”

Another challenge she sees is supporting recent dental school graduates just starting their careers.

“Dentistry is the most expensive program to be trained in throughout all of healthcare,” Ulmer explains. “Students are leaving dental school with six times as much debt as when I graduated less than 20 years ago. They leave with so much debt that they have to make money right now to start paying off those loans, and we’re seeing more practice models as a result.”

Staffing and educational expenses are just two of the major challenges facing dentistry today and in the future. Technological innovation continues to accelerate, dealing with reimbursement rates that don’t keep up with rising costs, and an increasing emphasis on total body care all will bring further changes.

“Some of the nuts and bolts of dentistry don’t really change much, but our profession will need to continue to provide more personalized and individualized treatment for each patient’s success,” she says.

Always Learning

Looking back at where she’s been and thinking about where she’s going comes naturally to Ulmer. She considers herself a student of history, both in her reading and in her entertainment preferences. Historically based Masterpiece Theatre series like “Poldark” and “Downton Abbey” are among her favorite programs.

She also gleans important life lessons from her personal history. “When you’re younger, you may do things primarily because they’re fun,” Ulmer remembers. “But then you look back and realize what you learned along the way.” As an example, she feels that working with youth in her church helped her learn to value the mentorship role and to be a better mentor to others.

She says she also learns from her patients by listening closely to them.

“Patients are sometimes their own best physician. They can tell you what you need to know if you can just slow down and listen to them. You don’t always have to be the expert; sometimes it’s better if you’re their mirror,” she says.

Ulmer is also quick to apply lessons learned in one setting to the challenges found in another. She served for several years on the board of directors for Spokane’s DETOX services, which provides emergency care, overnight holding, and other services for those battling addiction issues. It was a volunteer assignment she calls “totally incidental,” but she walked away with a better understanding of local, state, and federal funding streams for social and public health services, and she has been able to apply that knowledge in her work with the Spokane IDEA Clinic.

^{A 2013 article in The Spokesman Review covering the restoration of adult dental Medicaid coverage in Washington features Dr. Ulmer, then-director of the Spokane IDEA Clinic, fitting a Medicaid patient with dentures.}

A Good IDEA

Early on, as her practice was struggling to take hold, Ulmer didn’t feel she could afford to see Medicaid patients, but over time she concluded that serving that population — one all too often overlooked — is important. So now, in addition to providing some care to teen patients covered by Medicaid within her practice, she also volunteers at the IDEA Clinic.

Sponsored by the Spokane District Dental Society in conjunction with the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic and Riverstone Family Health, the IDEA Clinic serves adult Medicaid patients. A group of local dentists take volunteer rotations to provide a combination of general and specialty care.

As usual, Ulmer ended up taking a leadership role, according to Dr. Nick Velis, another clinic volunteer.

“She worked as our foundation’s clinical director when we were in need of someone to help provide care for these underserved patients. She would take patients into her office if they needed to be seen outside of her days working at the clinic,” he recalls.

Ulmer found the work extremely satisfying, even if clinic patients can be a tough population to serve, sometimes proving difficult to contact and often less-than-reliable about showing up for appointments. The hoops that have to be jumped through to secure state benefits are another challenge. But the IDEA Clinic remains a success and continues to attract patients from throughout Eastern Washington and sometimes beyond.

Seeing Ulmer contribute to the success of the IDEA Clinic comes as no surprise to Dr. Amy Winston, who also has known her since she was in dental school.

“Ashley lives a life of service and seeks opportunities to impact the lives of the most vulnerable patients in our state. She’s spent countless hours volunteering her time both in dental and non-dental capacities. When Providence Sacred Heart expressed interest in starting a dental residency, Ashley was the first person I called. She served on the steering committee, planned and participated in fundraisers, and lobbied lawmakers to secure funding. I can honestly say that without her involvement, this program would not exist,” Winston says.

Explaining her multiple volunteer contributions, Ulmer says simply, “The state system isn’t perfect, but it’s what we have to work with.”

Maybe improving that system is the next big challenge this busy person will take on when her WSDA term is over.


^{Ulmer (second from left) poses with her team during a powerlifting competition in 2016.}