Executive Leadership

Ria Berger

Chief Executive Officer

Email: rberger@healthysmilesoc.org

Telephone: (818) 415-8497

Read Bio...
Ria Berger is a seasoned healthcare executive with over 25 years of Operations, Human Resources and Business Development experience in multi-cultural, multi-site locations in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Berger served for four years as a member of the Board of Directors at CalOptima (Orange County’s single largest health insurer), with $3.6 billion in revenue. She is a National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Governance Fellow.

Berger was previously a VP of Human Resources for several Fortune 500 companies ($2B-42B revenue). She is currently the CEO of Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County, one of the nation’s largest oral health care providers for children. Since the beginning of her tenure in 2014, the organization has increased its revenue by 250% within three years, tripled in employee headcount and launched an innovative Teledentistry program (one of the largest in the US.) Healthy Smiles was named one of Orange County’s Top Workplaces in both 2017 and 2018.

She is a co-founder of Art 4 Fun, a 22 year-old business headquartered in London and continues to serve on the Board of Directors. Ria Berger’s greatest strengths are in the successful execution and transformation of world class organizational and business development programs. She has extensive experience in strategy, operations, board recruitment, leadership reorganization, culture transformation, and mergers and acquisitions. She masterfully architects innovative systems integration and delivers outstanding results to Fortune 500 companies, private corporations, and nonprofit organizations.

Berger holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California (USC), and has taught HR and business courses at the University of California, Irvine and USC.

Joseph Bennington, C.P.A.

Vice President, Finance

Email: jbennington@healthysmilesoc.org

Read Bio...

Joseph Bennington was appointed VP of Finance at Healthy Smiles for Kids of OC (HSK) in March 2021. Joseph provides strategic leadership in the areas of finance, accounting, fund administration, valuation analysis, compliance, budgeting, forecasting, treasury, cash forecasting, computer conversions, and restructuring. Prior to joining HSK, Mr. Bennington was Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Brigade Partners, LLC a venture capital firm in charge of M&A.
Prior to that Joseph was CFO at Habitat for Humanity of Orange County (HabitatOC). Here Mr. Bennington directed and improved accounting, financial reporting, human resources, payroll, and audit functions. His success in staff training, guidance, and implementing best practices (SOX) internal controls provided HabitatOC with strong leadership and this improved their independent Charity Navigator rating to the highest possible rating. He also served as an Advisor to the Audit & Land Acquisition Committees and played an integral role in all major Board of Director decisions.
Before HabitatOC, Mr. Bennington served in executive management positions for several companies ranging from billion-dollar private enterprises (J.H. Snyder & Co, & Triyar) to public companies (Clean Energy Fuels and IPO start up Wecosign). As Wecosign’s CFO, he achieved “IPO S-1 Effectiveness” with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Bennington began his career with the International CPA firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Los Angeles where he performed a variety of audit and consulting services for Fortune 500 and mid-sized companies. Joseph holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from University of Southern California (USC). Joseph has two active California licenses, a CPA license, and a Department of Real Estate Broker license.

Dr. Priyal Ohri

Dental Director

Email: pohri@healthysmilesoc.org

Read Bio...
Dr. Ohri is a native Californian who grew up right here in Orange County. After high school, she went to USC for my undergraduate degree and then moved to San Francisco for dental school at UOP. Dr. Ohri graduated from dental school in 2011 and immediately went to UCLA to complete additional training in general dentistry. She worked as a general dentist for two years, and during that time it became very clear to her that she wanted to become a pediatric dentist.  It is her passion to work with children and was honored when she got accepted to the pediatric residency at USC. 
Dr. Ohri was one of the lucky residents that got to train under the amazing faculty at Healthy Smiles and the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. She completed my specialty training in 2016 and moved back to the Bay Area to be with her husband. Dr. Ohri had always hoped that she would be able to come back to Southern California and hopefully become a part of the Healthy Smiles family again.  As destiny would have it, she and her husband decided to move back to Orange County in 2018 and she was given the opportunity to join the USC faculty and to be the Co-Director for the Orange County pediatric dental residents at Healthy Smiles. She has now become the Dental Director at Healthy Smiles and feels so blessed and excited to be in this new role. 
In her free time, she loves to dance, play basketball, and spend as much time as possible with her husband and two sons. She says, “I feel so lucky to be back home and a part of this wonderful team!”