13th Annual Dental Success Summit & SOI Gala 2026

Dr. Aaron Nicholas is an accomplished dentist and international speaker with over 37+ years of clinical experience. Dr. Nicholas graduated from the University of Maryland Dental School in 1987 and established his own practice, Nicholas Dental Care, where he has been serving patients for more than three decades.

In addition to his thriving practice, Dr. Nicholas is a passionate educator and
entrepreneur, having founded several organizations such as Monday Morning
Dentistry, Smile Protection Dental Plan, and The Dental Assistant School of
Maryland. He is also a faculty member and Blackbelt coach for the Dental Success Companies, as well as an adjunct professor at the Maryland Dental School.

He is the creator and instructor for his two popular in-person courses “The One
Hour Molar Root Canal, Buildup and Crown and The 90 Day Clinical Accelerator”. Both designed to give the general dentists a leap forward in their careers.

Dr. Nicholas’s dedication to the dental field extends beyond his professional
accomplishments. For the past 37 years, he has been an active participant in the
Dominican Republic Dental Mission Project, traveling over 27 times to provide
dental care to underserved communities. He considers this to be his greatest
contribution, and in 2022, he joined the committee that oversees and directs this charitable initiative.

Dr. Nicholas has also shared his expertise through various dental podcasts,
including The Dentalprenuer, The Relentless Dentist, Dentists, Implants and
Worms, Dental Practice Heroes and The Better Dentistry Podcast. He has authored several instructional videos, including The One Hour Molar Root Canal, Buildup and Crown; Ultimate Anesthesia; Profitable Hygiene Without Bloodshed; and Efficient Extractions for the General Practitioner

Addison Killeen, DDS, is a practicing dentist, author, speaker, and business coach. He has owned 8 practices and currently owns one startup in Lincoln, Nebraska that is growing at a logarithmic scale. Prior to the dental field, he was a ‘numbers guy’ for a large conglomerate, where he learned that you need to keep watching the numbers, no matter how big or small the company. He is the Co-Founder of the Dental Success Network, and has traveled the world extensively to provide dental care to the poor and under-served.

Dr. Alex Jeffrey is from Northeast Arkansas, graduated from the University of Arkansas with an undergraduate degree in Biology, and earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Missouri in Kansas City.

He and his beautiful wife, McKinzie, who is also a dentist and DSI black-belt coach, then moved to Florida, where they reside and own a 6-op general dentistry practice. They have specifically designed their work life around their family life with their two sons, Kale and Booker.

Outside of dentistry, Alex enjoys playing golf, hunting, and fishing with his two sons. Dr. Alex Jeffrey enjoys coaching on clinical topics such as implants, high-end restorative cases, and cosmetic cases, as well as business topics such as dialing in a low overhead practice, maximizing efficiency in small spaces, and systemization and protocol Implementation.

Dr. Allen Gotora is a Certified Leadership Coach, Speaker and Team Trainer with the John Maxwell Team. His passion is helping clients bring out the leader within themself by following a holistic approach. He understands that all aspects of a client’s life are intertwined, and each one affects others. Among other things, he helps clients with multiple  practice ownership strategies, building team culture, and organizational structuring. He is a Doctor of Dental Surgery and alum of Howard University in Washington DC. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Carthage College in Wisconsin. Prior to his career in Dentistry, he was an external auditor at one of the Big Five accounting firms. He is a multiple practice owner, which is why he is able to relate to any of his coaching clients. Outside the office he loves spending time with his family and traveling.

Beau Sparkman, DDS, is a practicing dentist in rural Oklahoma and Arkansas. Dr. Sparkman loves the clinical side of dentistry but is an entrepreneur at heart. He has a passion for growing dental offices and investing in real estate. He has grown his startup flagship office to now three successful locations and continually looking for ways to grow. He is a DSI Black Belt Coach who specializes in culture, kpi analysis,  problem solving, ortho implementation, medical billing opportunities, and multiple practice ownership. He has been married to his lovely wife Paola for 16+ years and has 2 children Elizabeth (10) and Lucas (7). He enjoys spending time with family when he is not working on or in the business.

Ben has been a DSI member nearly 10 years and was the third DSI member to become a black belt coach and the first golden rhino award recipient.  Ben is committed to personal and professional development of himself and those around him.  After recognizing the need for more in depth coaching on particular subject matter that just cant be fully explored in a 30 minute call he created Peak Dental Resources and now devotes entire days to topics like hygiene practice development, marketing and case acceptance and associate doctor development.

Ben has the perfect family with 3 kids a wife and a dog and he enjoys spending time outdoors with his crew.

In 2018, Dr. Christopher Green founded Green Dental Care from the ground up. No ordinary dentist, his relentless drive for success propelled the business from fledgling start-up to the ultimate “escape the chair” story in the dental world, where he called the shots and wrote his own destiny. But that was just the beginning. In 2023, he executed a strategic partnership cashing in on one of industries highest EBITDAs per operatory by joining hands with an invisible DSO. A move that allowed him to capitalize on the 5 year near vertical growth of Green Dental. This has opened doors for him to expand beyond dentistry. Dr. Green is a DSI black belt coach, an author, and the co-founder of The Practice Launchpad, sharing his secrets with dentists hungry for success. Off-duty, he’s a wild spirit exploring the untamed Colorado Rockies with his wife Jenna, kids Rowyn and Cameron, and his loyal

Jake is the financial analyst with the Dental Success Institute and the founder of Custom Practice Analytics. He really loves connecting with his clients and providing the most value he can in utilizing insights from analytics he provides to Dentists and their teams. Jake loves riding Motocross, playing golf, playing/listening to music, learning about people and businesses, sports, and entertaining/cooking.

Jason Tanoory is a practicing dentist and owner of a small dental group in the Finger Lakes area of upstate NY. He practices 3 days a week clinically and spends the rest of his work week as clinical director and CEO of Finger Lakes Dental Care. Jason has 5 children ranging in ages from 10-19 and has been happily married for 22 years to his beautiful wife Kara. Jason loves to read books on leadership, mental toughness and business philosophy and enjoys helping and coaching dentists that are not as far along the path as he is. He is passionate about systemization, serving others and is driven by the ideology that a larger dental organization can still maintain a great culture and the highest level of clinical quality and customer service. When not working, Jason loves to spend time sitting at the lake with friends and family cooking up a feast, having a few libations and simply enjoying life.

Grit, Tenacity, and Excellence fuel Dr. Kelly Dove every day of her life. Current owner of three dental offices, she learned early on that out-working people consistently outpaces all competition.  A proud business owner who not only has created a highly profitable dental practice; but also, fosters a healthy work-life balance by seeing patients from 7am-2pm only three days a week.  Winner of multiple dental related awards over the years, she has excelled both in the office and amongst her peers.

Dr. McKinzie Jeffrey is Arkansas-raised, a University of Missouri Kansas City Dental School Grad, and set up shop in Florida! Raising two boys who love all things outdoors. Dr. Jeffrey works side by side with her fantastic husband and fellow Black Belt Coach, Dr. Alex Jeffrey. The power couple is living their best life thanks to the opportunities this incredible profession has provided them. Dr. McKinzie is excited at the possibility of helping others. She has mastered and enjoys coaching on the following topics: maximizing efficiency and profitability in a small space, profitability with PPOs, maintaining a work-life balance, Strategy execution, and systems implementation, reducing and managing overhead, improving team culture, and operations systematization.

An entrepreneur at heart, Dr Steve has an insatiable desire to learn and grow.  The visionary of both offices, Dr Steve puts his heart into the growth of his team and has found exponential growth in their businesses through the development of their practice culture.  A firm believer in taking ownership of the problems within the practice, Dr Steve handles hard conversations with team members with a desire to help them grow.  Careful with his words, Dr Steve has voraciously sought out how to interact with others via seminars and books; and, because of this, has slowly become a self-proclaimed word-smith with his ability to both connect with patients and with his increased loyalty and effectiveness of team members. Both offices have a vision statement that states simply “We Grow People and We Create Positive Moments”.  This is the very heart of their businesses, knowing the investment in the team members and creating positive moments for patients to talk about are two of the foundational reasons for their continued growth and success.

If Dr. Steve is the visionary, Dr. Kelly is the executive, and this beautiful combination is the reason for their continued success.

Dr. Summer Kassmel is CEO and owner of Castle Peak Dental, Avon Dental, Vail Valley Dental Assisting School, DA Schools Delivered, and Dental Career Academy in the Vail, Colorado area where she has built a life she loves in the mountains with her family.

Always the entrepreneur, Summer runs 2, large multi-doctor practices and works 2 clinical days as a Diamond level provider for Invisalign and 2 days of CEO time working on the businesses. In addition to her offices, she operates Vail Valley Dental Assisting School out of her flagship practice. She now sells this program, DA Schools Delivered, to other doctors across the country giving others the opportunity to train dental assistants out of their own practices. Summer is passionate about helping doctors build successful practices and lives of their dreams but is especially enthusiastic about supporting women doctors to grow thriving practices they love. Summer and Mark Costes are co-founders of Dental Career Academy, an online education platform to inspire those with no dental experience to start new careers in dental front office administration and to help established practices further develop amazing team members.

Summer is currently a Black Belt Coach for the Dental Success Institute, where she coaches other doctors to implement elite systemization and control their overhead. She loves utilizing numbers and metrics to help doctors make intelligent decisions and work with intention rather than at a frenetic pace. She is also faculty for Dental Success Network where she facilitates the Lady Leader Group to encourage and help other women.

In her free time, she enjoys traveling, innovating, and spending time with her kids.

Love and Learning

Dr. Taher Dhoon was born in Utah, where he learned to love the outdoors. He later moved to California, receiving his BA in Physiology and Neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego. He went on to earn his Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. While in dental school, random seating placed him next to another aspiring dentist named Bridget, who would later become his wife.

Training and Missions

Dr. Dhoon has traveled all over the country to learn and perfect the most complex techniques available in modern day dentistry. He has also traveled to the Dominican Republic two separate times to perform implant surgeries and complex bone grafting procedures for the locals in those less fortunate communities.

Master of Dental Implants

He has seen first-hand the power of dental implants to change lives. That’s why he developed a proven system that delivers the best a quickest implant solutions available. He has become a go-to resource for dental implants with his implant expertise sought after by other dentists looking to implement the same process and achieve the same level of implant success.

Setting Patients at Ease

Dr. Dhoon has also completed training and become licensed to provide oral sedation for his patients. This has helped him improve the dental health of his patients who were once too anxious or fearful to visit the dentist. Appointments with sedation are easy and stress-free as patients are finally able to relax and receive the dental treatment that they have put off for so many years.

Home Life

He married his dental school sweetheart (Bridget) and they have three energetic kids named Connor, Claire and Jonathan. He has big plans for his son as he eventually plans to buy an old 60s-70s Chevy to rebuild with his son and then hand the keys over to him for his sixteenth birthday (as long as self-driving cars haven’t made this project obsolete.) His little girl Claire has him wrapped around her little finger. Adding to the family is a golden retriever named West and a little rescue poodle-shih tzu named Jordy. As a family they enjoy exploring all the hidden secrets Colorado has to offer, staying active, gardening, and spending time with friends.

Dr. Patel grew up in Canada and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Windsor in Ontario. He then went on to earn his dental degree from Northwestern University in Chicago. Dr. Patel is the founder of Palos Heights Family Dentistry and is an active DSI Balck Belt coach. Dr. Patel enjoys coaching on Practice mergers and acquisitions, team motivation, effective delegation, and maintaining a productive work-life balance. Outside of the office, Dr. Patel enjoys spending time with his wife, Susan and their two young children. He loves the Windy City and spending time outdoors, golfing, exercising, and chasing his children around.