Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
This is what the world needs now: two free-thinking “seasoned” Black women speaking their truth and inspiring others to do the same. Shaped by 45 years of friendship that began at the prestigious Brooklyn Technical High School through the Ivy League, medical school, marriages, divorces, triumphs, parenting queer children, life-threatening illness and many many amazing adventures. Each week, besties Leslie Osei-Tutu and Angella Fraser will push against boundaries in love, culture, careers, faith, politics and out-dated assumptions about women of a certain age. Remember, you’re never too old to change your mind…or your hair! (but more on that later :-)All views are our own and do not reflect the views of our institution/company. Information provided is not intended to serve as medical advice.
Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Ep 44 S4/8 A Life Pivot to Combat Oral Health Inequities One Mouth at a Time
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Open wide and say “AHHH-Mazing”! That’s what Ange and Lez thought of the revelatory information Dr. Nicole McGrath Barnes shared. Dr. Nicole is a longtime friend and a New Jersey based pediatric dentist who is saving the lives of marginalized children, one mouth at a time.
Oral health is the gateway to total health and is a number one preventable disease. Poor oral health can lead to diabetes, heart disease, low birth weight newborns and other conditions that few would link to the mouth as the source. Seeing the inequities of a broken oral healthcare system firsthand, Dr. Nicole established Kindersmile Foundation in 2007. Kindersmile has treated and educated more than 40,000 children at its 3 locations in NJ and throughout the world.
This episode explores the tragic stories that touched Dr. Nicole deeply and led her to pivot from a profitable private practice and why she feels joy from knowing that she has transformed the trajectories of children and their families. Stay tuned for her documentary, Toothache: The Painful Truth About Oral Healthcare Inequity premiering on Oct. 21, 2023.
If you enjoy this episode or our podcast overall, we welcome your support. Please join our Besties Quad Squad as a Patreon subscriber at the $5 or $10 monthly level. You'll receive exclusive behind-the-scenes content.
Visit Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn website for behind-the-scenes extras.
Hey Les, what's cooking?
SPEAKER_05What did it take to get here today?
SPEAKER_01Listen, fix it, feature it, or forget it. This is either a fix thing or a forget it thing. We don't need to feature it. Just move on. Why? Just move on.
SPEAKER_05Feature it. You know, okay. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn. Brooklyn. This is an episode that you want to listen to. Yes. I mean, I know the others are good, but this one is it.
SPEAKER_01Listen, we know some people. We know some people. We got our people. Our village is incredible. Absolutely incredible. You'll see. Just you don't have to take my word for it. You'll see.
SPEAKER_05So you're about to meet a member of our village. But let me just say a couple of things before I introduce this lovely lady. You know, I would say I've known Nick all of my life. And you know how people say this is like, oh, this is hyperbole. And you know, it's like, yeah, you probably met her after college or first time. It's like, no, I've known this lady. I was thinking about this 51 years. Easily, yes. That's and I mean that's born. That's a few people's lives. You know, we met in utero.
SPEAKER_01Leslie hasn't changed. And we would have it no other way.
SPEAKER_05Don't change. And not just that, you don't even call me Leslie. Right? But um, so this lady right here is a dynamic person, smart as can be, she's an entrepreneur, she's a god, godly Christian woman, wife, mother, she's a philanthropist. And when all those things get taken care of, and all of those people, she's a uh a medical missionary. When all the people that she takes care of is finished, then she does her work as a dentist. And not only is this lady a dentist, she's a pediatric dentist. So she takes care of people at that many people don't want to take care of. And she has special reasons for it, and she has a special twist at it. So I really, really, it warms my heart to introduce you to Dr. Nicole McGrath Barnes, who is like a little sister to me. Um, and we have stories that we can go on, but um I'll I'll just say because you probably won't, you'll you'll stop yourself from saying it, Nicole, but uh she calls me Geslie because when we met 51 years ago, she couldn't pronounce Leslie. So I've been Gesley forever. I'll stay that way for you because you're my my sweetheart. Welcome, Nicole. Introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_03Oh welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you so much, guessly. And thank you. This is such a wonderful opportunity. I'm honored.
SPEAKER_05Um, so I didn't do your bio justice. So could you I know it's hard to talk about yourself, right? Yeah, talk about yourself. Think about yourself.
SPEAKER_01Think about what your mother would say about you.
SPEAKER_03I I I can't do that. It's it's such a hard thing for me to do. Um, it really is. Um, um I love what I do. Um I know that I've been called to be on this journey, and uh it's not work. It's it's an honor to uh serve and um provide, advocate, educate. It all of that. It's it's it's a joy. It's I wake up every morning saying, all right, God, what's what what what do we have for me today? And uh, and I really mean it. And um and it's very, very hard for me to to speak about myself because as you know, um I'm a believer and this is all God.
SPEAKER_05And you know, uh Nick, as you're speaking, I'm getting teary, and I remembered when I couldn't smell fruit.
SPEAKER_01I wasn't gonna bring that up. Okay. I if if I may, if I may, but let me just I need to I need to read a little bit about Nicole Silvia.
SPEAKER_05Okay, but before I do that, I um I'm feeling the same emotion, which is why I'm I'm starting to cry right now, because I remember watching a documentary about you some years ago, and I was just bawling, and I feel the same way now. I didn't anticipate that I would um during our talk today. But the reason I'm getting emotional is because I'm thinking back to that little girl who, as you uh as we laugh over the years about you, you know, your mother was asking you to spell fruit and you were having some difficulty. I think you can spell fruit right now, but but um I'm emotional because I just remember you growing up. And obviously at that time, I'm a few years older than you. I had no idea of the uh dynamic person that you were going to grow into. And while we all went our ways and did professional things, and obviously we've you and I have stayed in touch all this time. I just keep thinking about how proud I am of you. And I just keep thinking how fortunate I am to have you in my life and to know someone like you, and to know someone who I can call up on the phone if I need something, or you know, it's it's it's a big deal to me, and that's why I feel like it's it's almost like ownership in a way, you know. And I had nothing to do with your professional success. I had nothing to do with it, but um, but that's why I'm a real emotional, but I'm gonna pull myself together.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for those get it together, Les. Get it together. I am, I am. Listen, so I want to read read a little bit here because um I I think the way that Nicole described herself is um is the way that she shows up for the people that she serves. Um, humble, there because God has placed her there. Um no braggadocious, no, you know, her leadership filters down to her staff. I hear this over and over again as I did all my research because I know Nicole. Dr. Nicole and the CEO Nicole, philanthropist Nicole, not so much. So I really have to have to read this. Um Dr. Nic Dr. Nicole, as she is lovingly referred to by her patients and community partners, established the Kinder Care Smile Foundation, Inc. as a charitable organization in 2007 based on her personal exposure to the disparity of dental care across access in Montclair, New Jersey, where she ran a private practice for nearly 25 years. How old are you? Oh my gosh. Dr. Nicole is a tireless advocate in reaching out to at-risk children in her community who lack access to affordable dental care. To date, she has led Kindersmile Foundation to provide free or low-cost dental services to over 25,000 children. Let me tell you, when you when you have a toothache, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_04That's right.
SPEAKER_01You are paralyzed. 25,000 children in New Jersey and traveled to Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, uh, Ecuador, and Israel. I just saw you just had a missions trip to Israel to donate dental care to children and adults. She earned her medical, her dental degree from the University of Maryland School of Dentistry and completed her residency program at UMDNJ, Newark, New Jersey. She's also successfully completed the leadership program in 2010 offered by American Dental Association Institute for Diversity and Leadership in partnership with Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management. I'm gonna stop there because it would take us 45 minutes to to um returning. This is the caliber of professional heart, um, just a good, good, good person. And I think um we're so fortunate to be on the planet at the same time that you are. And um, when I think about 25,000 children, just just the um the scope of that and how much you had to wake up each day and keep doing the work, keep doing the work, keep doing the work, keep doing the work. It takes a lot of getting up to to um to minister through your dentistry to 25,000 um people. That is incredible, Nicole. That is incredible.
SPEAKER_05Thank you. Wow. And and the other thing that I think is so fascinating about your work is that this is not something that you had to do. You could have gone into some cushy private practice with pay patients who, you know, were paying patients and um not necessarily the neediest population that you choose to serve on a regular basis. But I I just want you to mention, because Ange mentioned the toothache, most people don't know the correlation between dental care and dental hygiene and systemic illness and what that does for your entire life. Um, can you just mention the import of catching children at toddlers? I see she deals with toddlers with huge plate toothbrushes. Yeah. And and and and tell me about that. Talk about that a little bit.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, for sure. Um I always say you don't know what you don't know, right? So education, intervention, and a prevention is really big with our organization, with Kinder Smile Foundation, and um educating mothers and children at a very young age in our marginalized communities is so important because of the broken oral health care system that has plagued our marginalized communities, right? And it's it's systemic. You start with a toothache, then there's a label, then there is mental health issues, then there's medical systemic issues, then your medical health is compromised, then you are a menace to society, then you get incarcerated and the cycle goes over, and that's the reality of it, because oral health is truly the gateway to total health. And as you know, being a uh physician, uh the mouth and the body have been separated for centuries. I think oral uh dentistry was born out of medicine, really. Uh, there was this um author, uh Mary Otto, who uh wrote the book Teeth. It was a uh New York bestseller, and she explained it so eloquently how the mouth and the body are so separated, and people treat it as such, right? Two parts of the body that you only uh go to visit uh the physician when you're in pain. The mouth and your feet. You're supposed to see the podiatrist annually. How many of us see the podiatrist annually? You know, so uh our job, my job is to really educate the population on the number one preventable disease, which is oral disease, but yet it afflicts low-income children in our community. So if we start young, we start with the matriarchs, with the mothers, because we have uh community programs, part of our organization, and educate them, meeting them where they are, not speaking down to them, but meeting them exactly where they are, because we all made mistakes as mothers. And uh just Yeah, we still do. I can speak for me.
SPEAKER_01What you don't know, what you don't know, you don't know.
SPEAKER_03You don't know, and then guiding them through that process of taking care of their teeth, right? When you're on the plane, what is the flight attendant say? Put the mask on yourself first, then your child. So educate the moms first, the matriarchs of the family on how to prevent this this preventable disease. Then that invaluable information trickles down to the children, and you can prevent systemic disease, heart disease, diabetes, um uh uh uh low birth rate, right? Low birth all through oral health, all through oral health. All through oral health, the acidic bacteria in the mouth trickles down through the through the blood at in utero at 100%. Uh the bacteria, what do mothers do when they drop their pacifier and they're not around the the there you go. What are they doing? They're transmitting those bacteria, that medium of bacteria to the uh 100. So it's education, education, education.
SPEAKER_05So, Nicole, I know you also um have a program for pregnant mothers. Yes, pregnant, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yes, we've got some great programs. In addition to providing comprehensive dental services to the children and families in the marginalized community, we have community programs, and we say we're in the community and for the community. Actually, we had a uh community program first, and that's how the foundation, that was the impetus of how the foundation was actually built. And it was through a um a personal story. So the first decade plus of my career, you check all the boxes: doctor, private practice, nice home, vacation home, kids in private school. I was very empty, very empty as a health professional. Not happy, very, very the the private practice, the sector trying to mold in what society feels you should be as a dentist, let alone a black dentist, right? Let alone a female black dentist. There you go. That was next. And a female black dentist living in Montclair, lot of pressure, pressure, a lot of stress trying to conform.
SPEAKER_05And I hamster wheel.
SPEAKER_03Yes, hamster wheel, right? And you think that you have all of these monitor and and boom, life is great. Well, no. So, long story short, I knew ever since I was a little girl, I was a servant. I was always babysitting, taking care of the elder, and so forth. So I knew that was missing in my life as I finished my career. So I had a nice long conversation with God and I knew that I had to go back into serving. So there's a difference between providing a service and serving your community. So for decades, I was providing a service, but not serving my community, and that's where the void was. So when I had that revelation of I need to serve my community, that's when my trajectory of professionalism changed and I went into public health dentistry.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_03But it wasn't until the story I decided to go and volunteer at a local Head Start in Montclair once a month on my day off. Then I noticed that a lot of the children had black teeth, um, mutilated teeth. And I'm scratching my head because I'm new to Montclair. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, right? With Brooklyn, exactly. And so I asked the executive director, what's going on? Aren't we in an affluent area? Why am I seeing what I'm seeing? And she explained to me what the Head Start program was. So I literally had to educate myself on what the Head Start program is about. It educates children at or below federal poverty level. Okay. So then I ramped up my services. I said, any child who needs a dentist can come to my office free of charge, just as long as you bust them. And they took me up on that. And then one day I was home cooking dinner with the children, and I got a phone call from my office, and there was a five-year-old girl from the local Head Start who had an abscess the size of a golf ball. She had it for three months, three months, five years old, little black girl. Now, although she went to Montclair Head Start program, she lived in Union City. And she used the address. That's right, right. She used the address of someone in Montclair so she can attend that Head Start program. So grand aunt and mother, her village, could not find a dentist within a five-mile radius to accept her Medicaid. So she was walking around with an abscess, literally the size of a golf ball.
SPEAKER_01For a day, much less months.
SPEAKER_03What? Three months. So that night. She could have died. So that's right. That night I went home and I bawled because I looked at my kids and I said, My son was almost that age. I'm like, what are we doing? What's going on here? I'm a health professional. How is this happening here in the United States? And that night, Kinder Small Foundation was born. And that has been my journey ever since.
SPEAKER_05Oh my God. Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_03That's part two of it. The next day, I go to my accountant and I said, Look, I want to start a nonprofit. He looked at me like I was crazy. He was like, Do you know what it entails? I said, I have no clue. He said, Well, you got to do this, you got to have a board, bylaws, this, and and I literally felt defeated when I left his office. And I can't do it. Yeah, I went back to my office. I sat at my desk just like that. And I said, God, if this is you, if this is truly you and not me, I need confirmation. And I left it alone.
SPEAKER_05That sounds like something you would do, Ann. I'm waiting.
SPEAKER_03I'm waiting. Exactly. I'm sitting there and my receptionist comes and she drops the mail on my desk. I fuss through my mail, and there was the quarterly American Dental Association quarterly newsletter. And on the front cover, a 12-year-old boy, Diamante Driver, died in Prince George's, Maryland from the same access that a little Z had. And I said, That's it. This is my dream.
SPEAKER_05Oh my God.
SPEAKER_03And here I am.
SPEAKER_05Dropped it on your desk then.
SPEAKER_03Just that when you literally after I said, God, you've got to give me a confirmation. You asked for it. I did. Yes. And there it was, front page.
SPEAKER_05Let me let me give you another story that I was thinking of in terms of the how serious dental um disease is. Omari, by this time, he was in uh college. in Chicago and his kidneys were compromised so he was clearly um on steroids so he was immune compromised um because he was taking um steroids for kidney trouble and he had a tooth extracted the tooth got infected immune compromised whatever um I wasn't there you know but I remember speaking to him several times on the phone and saying you gotta go back and he's like I'll just you know whatever staying in the bed or whatever by day two or three he couldn't even speak the tooth was so bad it was a lower tooth and I was telling his girlfriend you need to get him to the hospital because he's immune compromised and he has a problem by this time Omari couldn't speak so he wouldn't even come to the phone by time he got to the ER they were calling me to get give permission to do a trait. He had Ludwig Sangena so the infection from his lower jaw spread so much down his neck that it was compromising his breathing and they said that if they couldn't get a breathing tube in because of the swelling they would need to put a hole in his neck to breathe that was also the time he was had such infection he was septic and that's when his kidneys failed and he had been on dialysis ever since not to take it in another direction but um from that tooth problem I don't rub it in its face but I say if he had not had that problem he could have saved off dialysis and kidney failure for years more. Wow look at that unbelievable so the point is that um we have no idea I've had um when I was working in the neuro people with upper tooth problems spread to the brain. Absolutely that's exactly what happened to Diamante dried died from a brain infection spread to the brain they open up the brain and have to instill antibiotics through the cranium I mean this is medical talk but it's no joke. So when you set these children up for a future of good dental care and dental awareness you're doing God's work nobody saving lives literally one smile at a time wow one smile at a time and a lot of people knew don't know I mean we used to grow up thinking you put the child to bed with the with the the bottle in the mouth that you know they can suck and it pacifies them while they sleep and there's the milk sugar sitting in it. You know when you come in and see a kid with two and three years old with rotten teeth yeah he's only been he's only owned teeth for two years.
SPEAKER_03That's right. And and and and that's exactly too what happened there was a two-year-old boy that we saw at a local head start by two years old you're pretty much have your pro all your primary teeth 20 teeth 10 on the top 10 on the bottom this little boy 18 out of his 20 teeth were non-restorable no 18 out little black boy another story it was the work was completely out of my purview he would have to be administered to the hospital under anesthesia to get all of this work done that's something that I was not doing. So I referred him to a specialist long story short two years old a baby long story short we go back to the school because we go back every six months into the school assimilating you know them going to the dentist we go to check him out he's not in the class and we're looking and I go to the teacher I'm like where's little Jade she they're like well he's doing speech therapy and I said speech therapy why is he in speech therapy this time he's probably about three and she said I'm not sure he's in there with other kids now this is a predominant Head Start educates predominantly black and Latino kids so I literally knock on the door and I interrupt and I'm like I'm looking I'm looking for little Jay he needs his checkup and come to find out because they had to prematurely because your teeth naturally exfoliate or fall out they had to prematurely extract a lot of his teeth and some of the teeth that they had to extract were his upper anterior teeth. So when you extract your upper anterior teeth your tongue does can't lay behind your teeth to enunciate and pronunciate. So they thought he had speech problems the first label as a black boy.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god and I was like he doesn't belong right I'm like he doesn't belong there take him out I mean I had to literally jump through hoops and advocate for this this young kid because they didn't know so I and how could his mother know you know well his mother wasn't in the picture unfortunately his mother was addicted to substance abuse and he was being taken care of by his father who you know but long story short the first label fast forward 12 years little jay's now big jay 14 at one of our dental homes in Bloomfield affect completely flat mental health issues you're bullied you know when you get these you get one label you're bullied then you go into another and it becomes this and I literally witnessed that for 12 years. So this is it's real it is so real and I always say you don't know what you don't know.
SPEAKER_05So time takes wow that is so motivating Nicole I mean in terms of you waking up every day it's like I'm waking up and doing this for Jay for this kid right over here and for that kid right over here and to prevent what happened to Diamante years ago.
SPEAKER_03Yes that's that's right. What I'm hearing is these are not one-offs everything that you've described you could see it happening to many many many children it does and these are not like you know rarities no you know what I mean this is everyday life in our communities this is literally every single day right kid our kids end up living with pain if I show you pictures of some of the teeth that we see literally on a daily basis you would really think that we're in a third world country.
SPEAKER_04Oh my God.
SPEAKER_03And I'm not making this up and it's the reality I mean you and I we're blessed. We have private insurance we have the resources our child is in pain there's a copay of $50 seven we can send them every six months people there's so many families who don't have that luxury and their lives are cut short you know physically mentally because of lack of access to oral health care.
SPEAKER_01Wow whoa I want to ask I'm blown away you so you started where were you when you started um the Kindersmile yeah I was in Montclair New Jersey I was nonprofit and private practice okay so you had cloned yourself I guess okay I when I look back I don't know how I did married with three kids I I the grace and mercy of God I I know I I for real and then I know that you you branched out yes and then you branched out again yes so it's it seems like you kind of created this um this um uh repeatable the scalable um operation yes that is an that is like next level because kind of doing it transactionally is one thing yeah but when you create something that can be duplicated and triplicated and people can come in and see how it's done and take it to that that is next level Nicole like that's Holy Spirit led level the literally it is because the third devil home was opened in the thick of COVID and when I look back in 2020 I oh literally that's why when you say introduce yourself I mean yes I'm just a vessel that's all you know I'm just I I say I'm just an obedient vessel then okay well introducing you was my work to do then so so I'm glad I took that on I understand why you couldn't there was nothing stopping me so so and I walked into the I think that's the newest kinders location in Trenton.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_01So you went to Bloomfield after Montclair and then Trenton?
SPEAKER_03Yes so Bloomfield was our first dental home and we call it a dental home not a clinic office or centers because our children and families are so used to going into clinics and centers that are subpar unprofessional so we wanted to call it we call it a dental home culturally sensitive it looks like a private practice this is for you you're a human being with dignity you deserve this and we're gonna give this to you so the first one in 2016 was in Bloomfield and then the second one was in 2019 uh the Boys and Girls Club of Newark had a three-chair dental center there they reached out to us because they saw the work that we were doing in the community and they said come take this over so we're in Newark serving the Newark community and the members of the children the Boys and Girls Club of Newark and then a donor heard and saw what we were doing and said you gotta bring this to Trenton. There's such a need and I knew nothing of Central Jersey nothing about Trenton did a lot of research and it took about two and a half years and Trenton is the only dental home that we serve children and adults because there's such a need.
SPEAKER_05That's what I was going to say I walked in this place and I'm like what it was like a dental wonderland.
unknownOh my gosh.
SPEAKER_05You know when you entered the colors are warm and inviting the chairs you know we all I'm sorry to say Nicole but I walk in my dentist office and I still have that anxiety.
SPEAKER_03You walk in there it's bright it's colorful there are child sized um uh brushing stations with sinks that are slittle with mirrors and toys and activities and books and then you walk a little bit more and there are adult chairs there you know it's like I'm like who did this little Nick I just keep saying yes yes yes so I want to ask what does dad think of this you all don't know but Nicole is a second generation dentist her dad is a dentist as well so what does he think of this I mean like what does he say I mean he he's proud you know he's he's he's proud he's I mean I know he's proud of all of his children but you know you are the only one that followed him in dentistry yeah and it and it and it's interesting how and it's interesting how I ended up in dentistry it's it wasn't directly because I saw my dad as a dentist right right so can you tell that story briefly what what what how you ended up in dentistry so so my mother my beloved queen Jamaican warrior woman sacrificed her life for us and I never saw my mom not at glee clubs I'm sure you saw my mom more than you saw your mom literally not at glee clubs not at parent teacher conferences not at sports now because mommy had to work she had to work to provide food for us and um and I just witnessed her do that and I said I don't want to do that I want kids I want like a hundred kids and I want to be there for all my hundred kids I used to say this when I was younger and um and it was not until the age of 1415 I literally started thinking about my future I used to have a list probably with all misspelt words but anyway list you know pediatrician this that and the other and um I really wanted to be a pediatrician because I love kids I have such a strong affinity for kids and I used to do candy stripe at Kings County Hospital see you in your in your outfit yeah I've definitely volunteered and and there at Kings County Hospital there were like a lot of crackhead you know deformity and in and I I just turned away from that and then I said dentistry and this had really nothing to do with that and I said to myself well Nicole how do you know you want to become a dentist and I'm like I don't know I want to become a dentist so then I opened up the New York Post and I look for a job. I looked for a job and it said dental assistant I'm like I could do that that's after school hours I I get on my blue 10 speed bike and I rode down from uh New Kirk all the way down to we lived in the time yep and I rode I locked my bike up right by the corner of uh foster no foster was it uh that's no Brooklyn no strength and where was that pizza place right by 269 what is that street but anyway I locked my bike up and I knocked on the door and I'm like I'm here for a dental assistant job and he looks at he's like um you got credentials I'm like what's that I'm here I'm here and he's like just come it was on the second floor he's like oh just come upstairs and he was like well you know you should go to school for this and how you know what and I didn't know and then this young Jewish guy became my mentor wow literally oh my God and he was like it's okay you you know when you have some days off or after school just come on and and watch and see what the profession's like and that was it from then on at that point I set myself up when is the when is the she just stepped out in the movie I want I want the movie of your life I listen the whole listen you just did a segue and because oh yes when is the movie coming out 20 years to ask not only has Nicole been in the media and on television several times but you have a big project that's coming out yeah yeah talk about that so for probably a seven plus years I've always wanted to do a documentary on access to oral health care in the state of New Jersey and we're letter answer my prayers.
SPEAKER_05And we all know by now that what you set to motion and if the Lord says yes it happens.
SPEAKER_03There you go on October 21st in Hamilton will be the first premiere and then November 9th in Montclair New Jersey and um it is a documentary for everyone it um it's it it tells how our system is so broken. And it's just not in the state of New Jersey it's other states. It's a global epidemic and we talk about the emergency room cost taxpayers when our patients have to go to the emergency room to get treatment because they're no there's no access to care for the the marginalized community they you know they're on Medicaid but there are no providers except in Medicaid so where are they going? Why? Because Medicaid fees are so low the reimbursements are so low and inflation has gone up and clinical supplies have gone up where do our families go to the emergency room and who is carrying this burden you and I. So why not open facilities that can embrace and accept the uninsured and the underinsured to talk about that to talk about the stories we almost had a Diamante driver case in the state of New Jersey one of my patients that's in the story having people talk about their real lives experience because you don't know what you don't know but we've got to do something in the state of New Jersey before we have a sacrificial child.
SPEAKER_05Right so what's the name of the documentary the dot the name of the documentary it's called Toothache the painful truth about oral health care inequity and I'm going to put the links um to all of your information including the documentary um on our episode page and on our social um and I'm sure you've advertised as well thank you um I got my tickets good I'll be there I'm gonna be in the middle of I'll be there production I was I was trying to trying to squeeze it through but I I made commitment but it doesn't mean that I won't see it maybe I'll make the November 7th that's right November 9th November 9th okay yes absolutely go for that one yes so it's so what I've also liked to say is that you've um partnered um you've gotten support from a lot of large organizations that see your work much like the people in Newark did and really want to partner with you and kind of spread what you're doing.
SPEAKER_03Yes are you able to talk about any of that so yeah I mean we've um you know I always say you know with the Lord you're patient you're just obedient you sow those seeds and in his perfect time and they'll start to bear fruit so all the seeds that we've sown 16 years now are starting to bear fruit partnerships with some potentially uh capital health um can't really talk specifically about yeah you know but um partnership there uh with uh potentially Robert Wood Johnson we have a partnership with Mercer County Community College where we uh formulated a dental assistant program in the Trenton area to increase workforce yeah and our chief dental provisor provider Dr. Stephen Vassal runs that program and and we want we want young people to have hope and opportunity in their own community so why not in the dental profession and once they finish the course we tend to hire 50% of them or make sure that they find jobs so a lot of a lot of uh great partnerships we have partnership with partnerships with over 200 community partners we partnership with uh first lady tammy murphy with her nurture new jersey which is incongruent with our perinatal health and wellness program and about two years ago I um I constructed or constructed I don't know if that's the right word but formulated a bill um that was uh just most recently picked up by um uh the Senate some Congress people in in in this in the um in the state of New Jersey and and and it's called uh Mom M O M it's um maternal oral medical and it's a bill that replicates our perinatal health and wellness program where we educate Mothers because they're the matriarch and we provide services. So prayerfully, you have tentacles everywhere. I know. And that's so funny because that's what my C C O O says. Our tentacles. But that's how you spread oral disease awareness.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I was thinking about Nicole when you described the um the dental program to train. It reminds me of the Peace Corps. So you train these people, they go out, and then they they serve, right? Because they got this training and they serve. So to have something like that in in in Trenton. And Trenton, I um I used to live um close to Princeton in Millstone Township. So um exit 7A eight in that area. Yes, and and we would yeah, so when we would drive through Trenton, beautiful but really depressed area, but you could see that it had a history.
SPEAKER_04Yes. Right.
SPEAKER_01And if money was put into it, all those old buildings and beautiful place. And so when um I think it was when um your sister came and um to to check out the place. I wanted so much to be there. I wanted so much to be there because it's like I'm gonna be able to do that. Yeah, you were missed because we had a good time.
SPEAKER_03Yes. It was fun, especially funny as your dinner.
SPEAKER_01Right, yeah. We'll talk about the dinner during the um the after the after the episode.
SPEAKER_05If you want to hear about the hilarity that ensued, well, whenever we get together, become a become one of our Patreon subscribers.
SPEAKER_01We are gonna be talking about that after after the episode. Um Wow. I want to ask about Nicole the person.
SPEAKER_05I was just gonna say, in the time we have left, because you still are a mom, you still are a wife, you still need sleep, you're a human being.
SPEAKER_01What Leslie said. What Leslie said, who's taking care of you? Who takes care of you? Who's taking care of Leslie? Could you get out of my head? Could you? There's no room. Who takes care of Nicole? So how can we help to take care of Nicole?
SPEAKER_03So I am very, very blessed to have a great team, a Kindersma Foundation of about 33 employees. I've got great, they we're we great family, great village. Um, on the personal side, I am very blessed to have an incredible husband who loves to cook, who loves to feed me. Um, we have a lot of fun together. We um he has a motorcycle, so we're constantly on the motorcycle. Um, we just um you know purchased um a 48-foot boat. Uh so we have we both so there, I have outlets. Um I love to garden. I love to spend time in at our home in Martha's Vineyard. That is my happy place. I garden there.
SPEAKER_05You get the gardening from your mom.
SPEAKER_03I do. I'm a nature person, I'm a true Jamae. I go out with no shoes on and I'm in my garden, and I don't care less what's, you know. So I have my kids. I I love, love, love, love, love being a mom. Um, they're near and dear. I we I speak every single day to them. Um, they look out for me. Um my sister, we talk multiple times. My family, everyone, we all come together and we take care of each other, and that just replenishes my soul. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And I think that the solution to well-being is when we look outward. The happiest people seem to be the people that are not focused so inward, but look outward.
SPEAKER_03Amen. Without a doubt. You know why yes, you know why guess because we're called to be servants, and when we're obedient, it works. When you're people say, like, how do you sleep? I sleep well. You know, today was a great day for me.
SPEAKER_01I had you said that as soon as we asked you how their day today was a great day.
SPEAKER_03I went to the gym today. I'm able to go, you know, meet my husband for lunch and and and do all of this because it's not a chore. This is a joy. I mean, yes, I'm up one, two, three, four o'clock in the morning, but it's a joy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you sound like somebody I know, the other person um on the show right now. Leslie's the same way, like, oh, I love my job. I'm like you. I love it.
SPEAKER_05I love it. I said, you know, if they didn't pay me, I'd be okay. I just don't tell anybody. Right, right, right. But they don't have to pay me. I'm good.
SPEAKER_01Yes. I just want to remind people that it is possible. I love what I do also. It is possible to lean into your joy.
SPEAKER_04Yes, right? Lean into your joy. Whatever that looks like for you.
SPEAKER_01Nicole left Cushy, and people would think that Cushy is is is the the bee's knees, that is where to be. And she was empty, completely, and she's full and and and enjoys going to work and serving people every day, and she's never felt better. Never, ever. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's it's like we gotta we gotta flip that.
SPEAKER_04We really have to flip that. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_05Well, that is a perfect way, place to end. Okay, it's it's like I can't believe the time has flown by, but it has.
SPEAKER_01Yes, Leslie is a timekeeper because I am, I am we just keep talking because you just get lost and keep talking.
SPEAKER_05Right, you do, you do, but but thank you so much, Nicole, for being here in this setting. I mean, obviously, I see you in so many settings, and I just I love you. You're my sister. I'm just immensely proud of you, and you just keep saying, what for? What for? Uh, don't worry. I just am.
SPEAKER_03Thank you so much. I love you too. Love you too, Andrew. Thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for coming.
SPEAKER_01This was amazing. We are going to share this far and wide. The word has to get out for this such an important um body of work that you are a part of and helping so many people and informing so many people. I think people, what is it that you've been saying when you don't know, you don't know? Yeah. Don't know what you don't know. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of getting the word out.
SPEAKER_05So, this has been another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn.
SPEAKER_00Brooklyn! Brooklyn!
