Patricia Ramirez Garibay

Patricia’s dreams, goals, and passions is what lead her to become the first woman of color in the city of Woodburn to build the first nonprofit dentistry. Patricia Ramirez Garibay is a Mexican American woman who was born and raised in Woodburn, Oregon. She grew up in a big family of seven, including her parents, her brother and her three sisters. Patricia lived in Woodburn for most of her adolescent life, but at age 18 she left Woodburn to attend Portland State University to achieve one of her dreams - to become a hygienist. Patricia’s passion to continue her education was influenced by the hard work of her parents. Ramirez knew that she needed to help her parents out and that was through education. As a matter of fact, the lack of insurance of her parents motivated her even more to become educated and to become a hygienist, especially after witnessing her mother get rejected so many times when wanting to be seen by a dentist. Therefore, she was determined to attend college, but for that she needed money in order to go so, she applied to many scholarships, which one of the scholarships she received was the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF).

However, Mrs. Ramirez’s dreams, goals, and passions motivated her to go above and beyond what she had already accomplished. After graduating from Portland State University as a

hygienist, Patricia was determined to become a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS), which in 2024 she was accepted at OHSU to continue this path of goals and passions.

In 2030 Mrs.

Ramirez graduated from Oregon Health State University as a Doctor of Dental Surgery. Although she was in school for twelve years she never forgot her dream of returning to Woodburn to help her community. Therefore, after working as a dentist for four years, she finally was able to meet people who had similar goals as her. In 2035, Mrs. Ramirez was able to open her own dentist clinic in Woodburn at a very low cost for patients who had no insurance, but that needed urgent care. Patricia’s dream came true and it became a success. Many organizations around the area became aware of this and she began to receive more sponsors for

clinic.

Patricia did not only create an affordable dental clinic for low income families in her community, but she was also involved in the community in other ways. Patricia struggled a lot with science and math, which made it extremely difficult through her first part of her career, she also knew that in careers of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), there is lack of students of color. Therefore, she wanted to be an example to her community (mostly people of color) that “everything is possible when you are determined to do it”. Therefore, Mrs. Ramirez provided biology and chemistry classes four times a month. She also encouraged students to volunteer at her clinic or to shadow her. This again became another of her successes.

Due to Mrs. Ramirez great accomplishments through her career and her motivation and passion to empower her community and her own people she has been inducted into the HSF Alumni Hall of Fame.