When the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and Skagit Valley College partnered this year to launch the first Dental Therapy Education program in Washington state the joint program garnered national attention.

Second Congressional District U.S. Rep Rick Larsen noticed.

Larsen met with all six students from the first cohort of the pioneering dexwxayebus (pronounced dahf-hi-ya-buus) professional dental program and toured its new state-of-the-art lab in October.

A a decade of advocacy, planning, development and implementation between Swinomish and SVC went into its opening. Larsen discussed that w...