Welcoming Heather Brazik Smith, SALT’s New Chief Experience Officer
We’re excited to welcome Heather Brazik Smith to SALT Dental Partners as our Chief Experience Officer. In this role, Heather will shape how doctors and team members experience SALT, from the first time they hear about us through every stage of their careers. As dentistry competes for talented doctors and team members, we’re making the experience of our people a deliberate part of how we grow.
At SALT, the title is intentional. It reflects our belief that how people experience their work, their team, and their growth is central to how a DSO succeeds, and that the full journey deserves one leader’s focus: attracting great people, welcoming them, developing them, recognizing them, and helping them build careers they are proud of.
Heather’s mission is to ensure every doctor and team member, in our practices and across our support teams, feels valued, supported, and connected from day one forward.
“Our people are the most important part of SALT, and the experience they have from their first conversation with us shapes everything that follows. Doctors and team members choose where to build their careers based on how they are treated, and we want that to be a reason they choose SALT and stay,” said Dylan Bates, CEO of SALT Dental Partners. “I take seriously the responsibility of bringing in leaders who are inherently good, who invest emotionally in their work, who build authentic connections, lead with warmth, and stay curious. Heather embodies all of that, and she is exactly the leader we need for this next chapter.”
Heather brings more than 25 years of experience building the people, culture, and operating systems that drive growth inside complex, multi-site healthcare and services organizations. Most recently, she served as Chief Experience Officer at BrightStar Care, where she led talent, organizational design, learning and development, and franchisee experience for a national home health franchise network of more than 400 locations. Earlier, she served as Senior Vice President, Organization Development at R1 RCM, and founded Purple Key Consulting, an organizational development and change management consultancy she led for 18 years.
“SALT has built something special, and I’m honored to help carry that forward,” said Heather Brazik Smith. “My focus is how people experience SALT from day one forward: the culture, the support, and the growth pathways that help every doctor and team member do their best work and build a career they’re proud of. When our teams thrive, everyone we serve feels it.”
Heather holds a B.A. from Bowling Green State University and is based in our Phoenix Home Support Office.