Whitman Family Dental hires dentist

COLFAX – Local 2013 high school graduate, Bradyn Ellis, 28, is returning to the area as a dentist at Whitman Family Dental.

After graduating from Corban University, a private Christian University in Salem, Ore. in 2017, Ellis went onto study at University of Iowa. Just recently graduating June this year.

Ellis started with Whitman Dental a couple weeks ago.

"Right now he's working with another dentist, while he works up his patient list. Then he'll be working here full time," said Lindsay Mellor, manager of Whitman Family Dental, "We are excited to have him back, and working for us he'll be a great asset to the team."

Ellis and his wife Katelyn Ellis, 27, are excited to join the communities that formed their childhoods. "We've been dating and married since high school. She is from Oakesdale," Ellis said.

Working in the area he grew up in means a lot to Ellis. "I wanted to come back and serve the community that I grew up in. I loved growing up in Colfax. I love getting to serve the people I grew up with," Ellis said. "I've known the Mellor family since growing up. It seemed like a really good fit."

One of the main reasons that Ellis decided to study dental is his love of working with his hands, "I've always liked a challenge. I enjoy Wood Working. I get to make an impact in people's life, but I also get to use my hands to make things pretty that may have not been before," as well as helping relieve other's pain.

For Ellis seeing so many familiar names on the schedule makes his job fufilling.

"It gets me a little more excited to come to work when I get to see people I grew up with. Makes it not feel like work," he said.