Team
Our valued team members are not only talented and experienced – they’re also caring, compassionate and dedicated to improving access to oral health.
How we work together as a team, and as a company, ultimately affects how we treat, support and care for our patients. That’s why we are grounded on three core values that make the spirit of our Practice, which guide us as we strive to provide the a welcoming place every day.
Complete communication
We believe in being open and honest. As advocates for total transparency in the workplace, we encourage an environment where our friendly team has the confidence to communicate all things appropriate to everyone necessary all the time! We believe that trust, sincerity and collaboration foster strong relationships and inspire us to achieve at the highest level.
Choosen excellence
We actively choose excellence, whether we are answering the phone or performing a clinical procedure. How do we do that? We ask ourselves, ”what is the best way to do what needs to be done?”. We choose excellence because we have a shared vision, and a mutual commitment to achieve our goal of expanding access to oral health care at the individual level. It is also the fact that working at a dental office provides the opportunity to put vital skills to use where they are needed and make a difference to the community.
Initiate gratefulness
We promote and encourage an environment where you get to feel good about yourself and the people you work with. We value the relationships we have and those we come in contact with. We believe that being grateful, even for the small things, fosters a workplace where people want to be and stay.
Each of our team members reflects the spirit of our Practice and our unique values-based approach to oral health. We’re proud of our team and how they work to make us successful in our endeavor to expand access to dental care in our community.
We invest, support and encourage our team to enjoy what they do and who they are with. So whether you’re a prospective patient or searching for a new position at a place that shares your values, come and check our open positions.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Take some time to get to know our Doctors and the Management Team below.
Dr. Michael Vaughan
Dr. Vaughan’s favorite aunt was a dental assistant. She loved her job and the people she worked with. Seeing someone who loved where she worked and the profession she chose made an impression on him. In high school and college, he loved the sciences and loved learning new things. Dr. Vaughan grew up in Knoxville, TN and attended Vanderbilt University, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in economics. He studied German and History at the University of Regensburg in Germany. Dr. Vaughan graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry and completed a 2-year general practice residency at Vanderbilt University in 1993.
Dr. Vaughan has been involved in community missions with Generation Changers Church and has led medical mission trips to Mexico, Honduras, Brazil and inner-city Nashville. He met his wife Carla on a mission trip to Brazil in 1999. They stayed friends after the trip and married in 2011.
In his free time, Dr. Vaughan enjoys gardening, growing his orchard, running, hiking in parks and playing tennis with his daughters. Dr. Vaughan would love to skydive one day. He has gone bungee jumping in the past and says skydiving is the next step. His greatest accomplishment is taking care of his three grandchildren, between ages two and five, and getting them back to their parents. Dr. Vaughan loves working with talented people who are working in their area of giftedness. Changing smiles and changing lives brings him satisfaction.
Dr. Hannah Raffoul
Dr. Raffoul liked the idea of being in health care from a young age. Her family referred to her as “Dr. Hannah” when, as a child, she would bandage up a scraped knee of one of her younger siblings. She’s always liked making people feel better. For her, dentistry combines her love of helping people with working with her hands. Dr. Raffoul went to the University of Dayton for her undergraduate degree (the best four years of her life) and then Ohio State University for Dental School (the hardest four years of her life). She loves dentistry because every day is different and involves problem-solving, working with her hands, and the combination of science and artistry. She loves both the sweet patients and the positive and caring co-workers.
In her free time, Dr. Raffoul enjoys relaxing with friends and family, hiking, cooking and Netflix binge-watching. She moved to Nashville from Ohio in mid-2017. On her bucket list is to see everything she can in Nashville and try everyone’s “hot chicken.” One of her most important accomplishments is surviving dental school. She says the best advice she’s ever received is a quote from Theodore Roosevelt: “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”
Dr. Sarah Pasch
Dr. Pasch knew that she wanted to be a dentist since she was five years old. Her interest in dentistry was solidified when she shadowed in the office of a retired US Navy Captain as an undergraduate at Michigan State University. This experience also introduced her to scholarship opportunities with the US military; and, as a result, Dr. Pasch was a recipient of the competitive US Navy Health Professions Scholarship Program for all four years at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston, MA.
After graduating from dental school in 2013, Dr. Pasch completed five years of service in the Navy as a Lieutenant and Dental Officer. Her first year was spent at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in Beaufort, SC. She was the only dentist onboard the ship USS SAN ANTONIO in Norfolk, VA for two years. She then finished her career at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, IL before moving to Nashville.
Dr. Pasch’s favorite aspect of dentistry is having the opportunity to meet patients from all walks of life and maintain ongoing relationships with them. She also enjoys making a positive impact on a person’s oral health and self-confidence through patient education and improving smiles. She was initially drawn to our Practice because of the opportunity to learn advanced dentistry and to work with a very deserving patient base that often has challenges accessing dental care. She knew that working with the team would be a remarkable experience because each person displays enthusiasm for providing the highest standard of care to all patients.
When she’s not practicing dentistry, Dr. Pasch enjoys traveling as much as she can, listening to all types of live music, spending time with her very close extended family in Nashville and Michigan, and loving her lazy rescue greyhound, Dora.
Dr. Aisha Ba
Dr. Aisha Ba has always been fascinated with how the human body works as a whole. Dr. Ba always knew that her career would be in healthcare, and ultimately, she decided to study the integration of dentistry and medicine at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. From there, she spent time working at the VA Hospital in San Juan, PR., where she provided loving dental care to her patients and they helped her to become fluent in Spanish.
Combining her creative and her scientific sides with her attention to detail creates a space where dentistry becomes a form of art for Dr. Ba. Passionate about patient care, meaningful results and long term relationships with her clients, Dr. Ba was drawn to the our practice upon seeing that they offered the same level of thoughtful care and dedication to our patients.
In her free time, Dr. Ba enjoys knitting, quilting, cooking, and watching sci-fi movies. She adores reading, with Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou among her favorites. She loves to fish and her bucket list includes a magical fishing trip to Alaska one day soon!
Jason Taylor
Before joining our Practice, Jason was the director of Community Connections of Middle Tennessee, a company that provides support coordination services for adults with IDD. It was there that he learned there were not many options for service when it came to dentistry. When he learned about the concept that we were attempting to provide, it resonated with him. Our Practice was aiming to meet a need to help others in an area that not many people understood how to help. Jason likes challenges and helping others. He has lived and worked all over the U.S and has always been vested in helping others. He sees his opportunity at our Practice as a culmination of previous experiences of serving and helping others.
Jason’s favorite aspect of working with us is the freedom to provide a life-changing service in a transparent and affordable way. He is on the Middle Tennessee Planning and Policy Council for DIDD. Some of his hobbies outside of work include being outdoors, going on adventures, running and experiencing community. Jason is always open to a good conversation, a good laugh and a good adventure. He has two children, Ali and Jet, with his wife, Tara. Being a father is one of his most important accomplishments, along with living for two years without electricity and biking across the U.S. One item on his bucket list is to hike the Appalachian Trail.
Moyses Barbalat
Moyses met Dr. Vaughan some years ago and was amazed at how we were delivering oral care. Moyses has been a strong member of our team since he joined. He is our go-to guy for every technological question, problem or concern. He has 12 years of experience working with startup companies. Moyses says his biggest accomplishments have been creating high productivity teams, hiring excellent people and creating a nice company culture. He has certainly used his experience to help our Practice grow into the company it is today.
In his free time, Moyses enjoys being outside biking, hiking or running. He was a professional athlete in his early years, so he tries to maintain a connection to a healthy life. He one day dreams to swim on the English Channel. Moyses says, “It’s been a pleasure to work here. I really want to create the most incredible place for our patients. I know that it will take a lot of work to get there, but I don’t see it any other way. We have to improve our world, our community and do good.”