The Vaca & Kirby Dental Team

Kristi is our seasoned Hygienist with over 20+ years experience in her field. She loves her profession more than ever and enjoys building personal relationships and helping her patients reach and maintain optimal dental health. Her focus is on individual oral health, which affects total body health. With each patient, she has an opportunity to help them stay healthy and avoid disease with the most up-to-date preventative care. Kristi is married to her husband, John and they have two grown children, daughter Cameron and son Jake. They recently added their son-in-law, Fielding, to the family on New Year’s Eve, 2023. Kristi is a team player, enjoys serving others in her community and through mission opportunities.

Kathryn has been part of the Vaca & Kirby Dental team since August 2022. She and her husband, Ryan, live in Longview with heir two dogs, Hank and Mally. In her spare time, Kathryn enjoys fishing, being outdoors, and spending time with family. She values hard work, honesty, and friendship. Her main goal as a dental hygienist is to make each of her patients feel comfortable and cared for. Kathryn loves educating her patients while placing value on their oral and overall health. She and Ryan are expecting their first child in 2024. Maybe our doctors should invest in a nursery as we have babies coming everywhere!

Shyanne is a graduate of the dental hygiene program through Tyler Junior College and has been practicing for over seven years. She decided to stay in East Texas and serve the area where she was born and raised and we are thrilled with her decision. Shyanne is happily married to her wonderful husband, Trevor. They have two beautiful children, son Henry and daughter Hayden. Her goal is to develop relationships with her patients and provide them thoughtful, individualized care. Most importantly, she wants each patient to strive for total systemic health, and focuses on teaching each patient the correlation between oral and systemic health.

Alex has been a vital part of our dental team for the past 10 years and loves helping our patients achieve and maintain beautiful smiles. She has a life-long dream of one day soon, becoming a dental hygienist and is attending school to reach her dream. We are very proud of Alex. Helping her patients and educating them about oral health is her passion. Alex enjoys working out while listening to her favorite jams and watching her son play football. She has two sons that keep her young and on her toes, and enjoys every minute of it. Alex has an obsession with hot, popped popcorn and that is the way to her heart.

We are thrilled to have Kelly as our new RDA! She has been in the dental field since 1996. Kelly lives with her family in Hallsville and enjoys spending time with her two girls Chloe and Chesney, and husband Chris. Daughter Chloe followed her mother’s love of dental and is currently a hygienist in Longview as well. Chesney is currently a Tyler Junior College Apache Belle where she is pursuing her dreams to be an educator. She is an avid reader and loves binging Netflix series and working out. Kelly is a perfect match for Dr. Kirby since she is just as much a perfectionist as he is. Kelly originally wanted to be a dental hygienist but fell in love with assisting. Our patients have fallen in love with her and so has our dental team.

Whitney is the baby of our dental team and is new to our RDA team. She is our resident Taylor Swift lover and she adores her two cats, Lola and Daisy. In her free time, she enjoys babysitting, reading, spending time with her family and scrolling TikTok. Whitney enjoys helping to put a smile on all her patients faces. We are thrilled she has joined our team.

Leilani is a Registered Dental Assistant and works closely with both of our doctors. She has been in the dental field for the past ten years. She was born and bred in Longview and is a die hard tennis player. Leilani has been playing since she was 10 years old and attended Southern Arkansas University to continue her tennis career. She still plays competitively and loves spending quality time with her family outdoors and hunting. She is married to her husband, Fernando and they have one daughter and another little one on the way due in 2024.

After being Dr. Kirby’s dental assistant for 19 years, Mary has transitioned over to our sleep practice as our Certified Sleep Coordinator. She is passionate about helping our patients feel better mentally and physically after getting a better night’s sleep, and loves the excitement and joy they share about their sleep appliance and what a difference it is making in their lives. Mary continues to make new friends and meet new patients who she cares about. Mary’s greatest joy in life is being “GiGI” to her two precious granddaughters. She is our resident red head and our team loves every strand of red on her head and the sass that come along with it!

Laci is a Certified Sleep Coordinator and Registered Dental Assistant with over 30 years of experience in dentistry. She has been married for 34 years and has three grown sons, two beautiful daughters-in-law, and one 10 year old granddaughter that rules her heart. Laci enjoys time spent with her husband and family. Her hobbies include baking, embroidery, and painting. Her vice in life is a Monster energy drink every morning in place of a cup of coffee. She says the things that she loves the most about her career is helping people find an answer to their lack of sleep and being part of bringing couples back in the same bedroom again after snoring has sent them to opposite ends of the house. Laci has so much knowledge regarding sleep apnea she loves to share with our patients.

Candy is our insurance specialist and has worked on our team for 16 years. Her oldest daughter teaches jiu-jitsu and is quite successful in mixed martial arts. Before becoming our insurance guru, Candy was a travel agent for over 20 years, which is a built-in perk for our staff. She has an extreme obsession with shoes. If you don’t see Candy at her desk, she is probably out shoe shopping!

Amy is back as our Insurance Specialist. She has worked in the dental field for over 30 years. She worked for Vaca & Kirby Dental for ten of those, took a four-year hiatus, and has been back in action helping our patients since. Amy has three sons, four beautiful grandchildren, and one great grand. She loves attending all of their events from baseball, to ballet, to putting worms on their fishing poles. The UPS man makes many stops at our office delivering gifts for those kiddos who have her heart. Life is good!

Ciarra is our dental treatment coordinator. She has worked in the dental field for six yers as a dental assistant and has now transitioned to the administration side of the dental office. What Ciarra loves most about Vaca & Kirby Dental is the patient relationships and the opportunities to get to know each patient. When she isn’t busy keeping our doctors in line, she likes to spend time with family and traveling. Ciarra and her husband are very excited to be expecting their first baby girl in June 2024.

Josie is new to our Vaca & Kirby Dental family. She has worked in the dental field for the past 6 years. Josie values work ethic and provides excellent care for our patients. As the Hygiene Coordinator, she keeps our three hygienists hopping. She has been married to her middle school sweetheart for 25 years and they have two wonderful children. She enjoys cooking, date nights, spending time with the family, flipping furniture and helping out her husband in their mechanic shop. Josie sells a make-up line called Farmasi as her side hustle which has earned her trips to Istanbul, Antalya, Turkey, Disneyland, Miami and Sedona, Arizona. Possibly the reason she has beautiful skin.

Tempe serves are the Marketing Director of our practice. She uses her creative talents to spread the word about our practice on social media and out in the community. A woman of many talents, Tempe also trains young ladies in dance and fitness who aspire to audition for area drill teams, the Kilgore College Rangerettes, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, and other collegiate and professional teams. She is married to Dr. Kirby and they have two children, Landen, who is at LSU in New Orleans studying to be an Oral Surgeon, and daughter Sierra, who lives in Tennessee with their two grandchildren, Sutton and Todd. She makes time in her busy schedule for exercise and loves Pilates, traveling, hiking, fly-fishing, and binging her favorite series on Netflix. Fun fact… Tempe used to choreograph for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC, The Lord Mayor’s Ball and St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland, and the Pro Bowl half-time in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is passionate about spreading the word how we can help our East Texas community sleep better.