Pride Team
Pride Institute's greatest asset is our team of professionals
Consultants
Mary Lynn Wheaton, RDH, MA – Mary Lynn joined Pride Institute in 1999 and has thirty years of experience in all aspects of dental practice management. She serves as the consultant team leader at Pride Institute and specializes in practice development, team building, group interaction and customer service.
In her twelve years at the Pride Institute Mary Lynn has co-authored many articles on Practice Management including the very popular "The Ultimate First Call". She is a featured speaker in many lectures and seminars throughout the United States as well as Sweden and Norway.
A former Assistant Professor in the Department of Periodontology at the University of the Pacific, Mary Lynn currently teaches "Team Skills, Training and Motivation" for Pride Institute, an energetic, thought provoking, and motivational seminar for dental teams. Mary Lynn holds a B.S. from West Virginia University and earned her M.A. in Education at the University of the Pacific.
Merry Greig Cosgrove, RDH, MS - Ms. Cosgrove joined Pride Institute in 1999 and brings a wealth of expertise with over twenty-five years of experience in many phases of dentistry to Pride Institute's Consulting Division. As a senior trainer and consultant, her background is in dental hygiene, dental assisting (in both general and specialty practices) and practice organization. Ms. Cosgrove is known as a dynamic and interactive speaker who is a popular choice for team training in National and State meetings. She began her career as a Dental Hygiene Program Director and educator at Chabot College and the University of California, San Francisco, School of Dentistry.
Currently, Ms. Cosgrove teaches practice management at the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry as well as Pride's Associates, Partnerships and Appraisals course, Team Extreme and the Pillars of Practice Growth. Ms. Cosgrove received her B.S. degree, R.D.H. from the University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry and her M.S. in Health Science from San Francisco State University.
Leslie Silverman, DDS - Leslie joined Pride Institute in 2000 and draws on her twelve years of private practice, education and consulting in order to mentor clients to achieve growth and profitability. She has Invisalign certification as well as a background in orthodontic practice research, so she supports a clinical perspective when consulting in our Consulting Division.
She excels in mentoring clients to achieve growth and profitability while enhancing their leadership skills to improve team relationships and office operations.
In her ten years at Pride institute Leslie has written and co-written many of the clinical articles published Dentistry Today. Her most recent is an overview on the use of lasers in dentistry to be published in March 2011.
In addition to her consulting and training duties Leslie will also be heading up the research and development for practice management support for sleep medicine in dentistry.
Leslie is a graduate of the University of Michigan Dental School. She completed her general practice residency at the Denver VA hospital and an AEGD residency at the University of the Pacific, San Francisco, California.
Wayne Pernell, Ph.D – Dr. Pernell joined Pride Institute as a consultant in 2005 and brings over two decades of management, consultation and executive coaching experience to the Pride's Consulting Division. Drawing on his background in clinical psychology, Dr. Pernell's private practice evolved to focus on leading change in large and small businesses. He has consulted with such enterprises as Schwab, 3Com, AAA, Whole Foods Markets, and the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinics. While with Pride Institute, Dr. Pernell has been a consultant trainer and he has worked with general and specialty teams to build communication skills, develop strategic plans, engage in business process analysis and redesign, and evolve through successful change-management strategies.
In addition to consulting, Dr. Pernell has used his expertise in psychology to write many articles and white papers on both patient and team management. Titles include "Linking Learning Styles to Case Acceptance" and "Taking the Patients Educational Temperature to Build Rapport and Case Acceptance". He has held management level positions in operations, organization development, and human resources within such diverse fields as healthcare, travel, insurance, and retail goods delivery. With his father having been a dentist, Dr. Pernell grew up with dentistry as a constant presence in his life. He graduated from UC Davis then earned an MS in clinical psychology from San Francisco State University and a PhD in clinical psychology from Alliant University/California School of Professional Psychology in San Francisco.
Sharyn Weiss, MA – Ms. Weiss joined Pride Institute in 2000 and brings over fifteen years of experience in training and consulting on a diversity of topics, including communication skills, leadership, experiential training, change, and resolving conflict to Pride's Consulting Division.
In addition to being the published author of two books about experiential training, she is a contributor to the 2001 and 2004 versions of the Training and Performance Sourcebook. At Pride Institute, she serves a dual role in assisting in curriculum development and consulting, including co-authoring the Building Blox series with Amy Morgan, CEO. She is a recognized speaker and workshop presenter in leadership development, interactive simulation and team development games. She holds a B.A. from Queens College and a M.A. degree in Training and Development from Ohio State University.
Ross Vera – Ross Vera is the newest addition to the Pride Institute Consulting team, having joined in April 2011. For 13 years, Ross has coached dentists and their teams in leadership, communication skills, case acceptance, marketing, human resources and practice systems. Combining his education in clinical psychology with his career in dental sales management and marketing, the transition to dental practice management was a natural process.
Prior to becoming a consultant, Ross held positions in sales management and marketing for the Discus Dental practice management division which launched the Pac-Live hands-on restorative dental courses as well as direct marketing for dental practices, product specific customer service training for dental teams, and dental décor sales. In addition, Ross’ ongoing role of consultant/trainer for the Dental Specialist Agency makes him an ideal fit for our dental specialty clients.
Ross holds a B.S. from the University of California at San Diego and has graduate training in Clinical Psychology from the University of Louisville. More recently, Ross has completed advanced training from the Coaches Training Institute. Ross can be reached at rvera@prideinstitute.com.
Naomi Cooper - Naomi Cooper is President of Minoa Marketing, a dental marketing and social media firm based in Los Angeles, CA.
In her role as Chief Marketing Consultant for Pride Institute, Naomi offers Pride's clients the opportunity to work with her one-on-one to create a road map for establishing a marketing and social media strategy through Pride's Marketing Diagnostic Assessment & Branding Analysis. Naomi also consults on an ongoing basis with clients who are in the process of implementing their marketing plans through Pride's Marketing Integration Intensives, which involve ongoing marketing consulting, generating budgets and timelines, facilitating vendor introductions and creating a system of marketing accountability within the dental practice.
With over fifteen years of marketing experience, Naomi is known for the depth and breadth of her marketing expertise, her ability to succeed in building brand while stimulating consumer response and her extensive executive leadership experience.
Naomi previously served as vice president of marketing for 1-800-DENTIST, one of the dental industry's most highly respected sources for patient lead generation and dental practice marketing. She has also held senior marketing and business development positions at companies as diverse as a Fortune 50 telecommunications giant and a venture capital-backed startup. Naomi is also a published author, a sought-after speaker and a dental industry opinion leader. Naomi holds a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA and earned a Certificate in Business Management from Loyola Marymount University. She can be reached via e-mail at naomi@minoamarketing.com.
Client Services
Mitch Sigler - We are pleased to have on our client service team Mitch Sigler. Mitch has been helping professional clients since 1982 and made the decision to focus on assisting dentists in 1991. Mitch's skill in understanding numerous aspects of a dental practice has helped hundreds of dentists enjoy greater results. He understands at the core of all change, is the doctor. Mitch specializes in doing conferences with doctors new to Pride, to co-discover, the value Pride can provide to them. Speaking with doctors, through extensive discovery, asking the right questions, he can help bring out the underlying issues that are often not uncovered during a standard assessment.