
Tualatin-based dentist and One World Brigades founder Dr. Julie Spaniel received the 2024 Academy of General Dentistry Humanitarian Award for ongoing non-profit work in Africa and Latin America.

The award, presented during an annual event in Chicago earlier this fall, recognized her commitment to volunteer service and ongoing delivery of quality care.
Spaniel founded One World Brigades in 2018, building her existing relationships and service work in Uganda and Kenya. The organization takes medical and dental student volunteers to rural communities in Uganda, Honduras, Ghana, and Kenya, where it provides medical and dental care, and sets up pharmacies, triage areas, and public health education services.
“I find equal joy in providing care and watching students grow and change before my eyes,” she said. “The people, both the students and adults, who have joined us on our trips are never the same after they return home.”

Spaniel has been donating her time and dental skills since she was a student when she volunteered domestically with the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina. Further experiences volunteering for mobile pop-up dental clinics in Ghana, Honduras and the Maasai Mara region of Kenya led her to founding One World Brigades.
The non-profit is collaborating on a project to build a school in rural Kenya, where primary education is scarce. Gilisho Freedom Academy now serves classes from preschool through fifth grade. The project, which kicked off in 2020, additionally provides free medical, dental, and public health education to the surrounding community.
“Dr. Spaniel has made service a way of life,” said dentist and past Oregon AGD President Dr. Bill Jordan in a written announcement about the award. “Her work with underserved populations can only enhance the opinion of those she serves that the dental profession, as a whole, cares, and sacrifices to meet their needs.”
For more information on upcoming volunteer service trips or donating to One World Brigades visit: oneworldbrigades.org.