Meet The Staff

Emily — Emily is our Office Manager and a LDA at Tonka Smiles. She graduated from Minnesota School of Business in 2001 and has been in the dental field ever since. She enjoys being outdoors, gardening, kayaking, and spending time with her family and friends.

Carol — Carol recently joined Tonka Smiles as a Patient Coordinator. She has experience as a front desk team member for over 5 years. Carol grew up in Michigan and has been married to her husband, Paul, for 39 years. They have 6 grown children and two adorable grandchildren. Her favorite things to do are organizing, reading, gardening, and more organizing!

Katie — Katie is one of our patient coordinators. She grew up in Cottage Grove, MN. Katie graduated from Century College in 2004 as a Licensed Dental Assistant. After assisting for many years, she found a passion for the front desk. She enjoys getting to know the patients and helping them with their dental care. Outside of work, Katie loves spending time with her husband, enjoying the outdoors, fishing, camping, and going for long walks.

Chelsea — Joined Tonka Smiles in 2020 as our patient coordinator. She has always had a passion for working in the medical field but found dental to be the best.   She loves getting to know patients and help them with their dental needs. She grew up in Mahtomedi and loves everything about summer. Sailing, swimming, paddle boarding, and hiking. When she is not working she enjoys spending time with her family and her fur baby Magnolia. 

 

Marilyn — Marilyn has practiced dental hygiene since 1975 and has been with Tonka Smiles since 1990. The most enjoyable part of her job is establishing relationships with her patients and having great co-workers to spend her days with. Helping people feel comfortable and continue to take care of their smiles is always gratifying.

Marilyn enjoys playing cards, watching movies, reading, and spending time with family and friends. She has two grown children; Tyler who lives in Denver and Ivy who lives in St. Louis Park.

Peggy — Peggy received her BA from the University of Minnesota Duluth and her Dental Hygiene degree from Normandale Community College in 1997. She has been a valued member of Tonka Smiles since 1998. Peggy loves visiting with patients and hearing their stories while helping them achieve optimal dental health.

Her interests include family time, travel, biking, jazzercise, movies, and reading.

Julie — Julie graduated from the U of M in 1981. She joined our team in 1996 having previously worked in a specialty perio practice for 15 years. She loves coming to work each day and providing quality care for her patients alongside an awesome team.

In her spare time Julie enjoys hiking, biking, curling, and reading. Her favorite things is spending time with her family and friends. She and her husband Doug live in Minnetonka and they have three grown children; Megan (JD), Kylie, and Kevin and two grandchildren, Amelie and Levi.

Lexis — Lexis joined the Tonka Smiles team in June 2019 after graduating from MN State Community and Technical College in Moorhead, MN as a Registered Dental Hygienist. She also graduated with her Dental Assisting degree in May 2016. Lexis is looking forward to getting to know all of her patients while helping them take care of their smile.

Outside of Dental Hygiene, Lexis enjoys traveling, doing anything outdoors, shopping, being active, DIY projects, and spending time with friends and family.

Madison — Madison grew up in Hutchinson, MN and joined Tonka Smiles in May 2020 after graduating from St. Cloud Technical and Community College as a Registered Dental Hygienist. She also graduated from Northwest Technical College in Bemidji, MN as a Licensed Dental Assistant in 2018. Madison is looking forward to getting to know her patients and helping her patients have beautiful smiles.

For her hobbies, Madison enjoys crafting, biking, going for walks and spending time with her family and friends.

Amy — Amy graduated from Lakeland Medical/Dental Academy in 1980. She started working for Dr. Ronald Axel and Dr. Tim Bergstedt over 30 years ago. She has continued to work at this practice until it evolved into Tonka Smiles. Amy enjoys working with a terrific staff as well as having fun with patients and building lasting relationships with them.

Outside of work, Amy’s interests include: playing volleyball, biking, baking, spending time with her nieces and nephews and traveling with her husband. Amy resides in Eden Prairie with her husband Jim.

Chrissy — Chrissy graduated from dental assisting school in 2013. She is originally from Hawaii and she currently lives in Maple Grove. Before attending dental assisting school, Chrissy was a nursing assistant for four years and has always loved working with patients. What she loves most about her job is helping improve people’s smiles and confidence.

Chrissy has three daughters; Nicole, Courtney, and Elissia and a springer puppy named Chewy. She enjoys cooking, shopping, running 5Ks, spending time with family and friends, fishing, going to the beach, and camping.

Kara — Kara graduated from St. Cloud Technical and Community College in 2017 as a Certified & Licensed Dental Assistant. She joined Tonka Smiles in May 2019.

Outside of dental assisting, she and her husband enjoy hunting, fishing, trapping, traveling and mountain biking.