St. David’s Foundation celebrates opening of new Dental Hub 

St. David’s Foundation celebrated the opening of its new Dental Hub last week with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony, bringing together the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, staff, construction partners and Mustang Ridge city officials to mark this important milestone for the Dental Program. The state-of-the-art facility will help the Foundation’s dental team optimize logistics, extend the lifespan of its mobile clinics and better serve the Central Texas community. The new facility has the capacity to store and service all 10 mobile dental clinics and includes meeting spaces and staff offices. 

Located in Mustang Ridge within southeast Travis County, the new hub sits near the intersection of four of the five counties the Foundation serves. The hub is also situated in a Health Equity Zone of Central Texas, an area where members of the community are facing health challenges.  As the region continues to rapidly grow, many individuals still face inequitable access to healthcare, particularly rural areas. The Foundation’s $4.3 million investment will enhance support for the mobile clinics, with the potential for future expansion as the region’s needs increase.

“The new dental hub will provide our fleet team with a much better facility in which to store and maintain our mobile clinics,” said St. David’s Foundation Vice President Julian Huerta. “The dental hub represents a significant investment from the Foundation in the great work our dental team does to meet oral health needs in some of the most disadvantaged communities in Central Texas.”

The atmosphere was filled with excitement as guests gathered to celebrate this important milestone. However, for one staff member, the day was especially meaningful. Eddie Gonzales, the fleet manager whose 14-year commitment to the Foundation includes a decade-long dream of seeing this facility come to life, was proudly on hand to celebrate the ribbon-cutting.

In the years since Gonzales joined the Foundation, the mobile dental team has almost doubled in size. While the clinics were previously housed on a lot generously provided by Del Valle ISD, the new facility will protect the vehicles from the Texas elements and allow the Dental Program’s Fleet Team to service the vans in-house.

“We’ll have a home for all of the dental vans and a meeting space for the dental team to gather,” said Gonzales. “This new facility is going to show the community that we’re invested in helping them.” 

With the Fleet Team maintaining the mobile clinics, downtime will be reduced, enabling dental teams to serve even more students. Ultimately, the new dental hub is a testament to the Foundation’s dedication to health equity, ensuring more Central Texas children have access to the care and healthy smiles they deserve.