Donna Myers Ashley, Endodontics

“Time really flies here, and that is good and bad, because I can’t believe I have already been here 30 years. My only regret is I wish I had started sooner.”

– Donna Myers Ashley

Around the time Donna Myers Ashley came on board as a dental assistant in the endodontics department, she had a rather unusual pastime. When she talks about it, her eyes light up with a playful glint.

“A few years back, I used to ride and race motorcycles ‘cross country’ and ‘motocross,’” she reveals.

When she joined the Texas Cross Country Racing Association in the ’70s, the sport was new to the area, and she was one of just three women who raced. “They called it the ‘powder puff race,’” Myers Ashley recalls. “Now there are a lot of women who race.”

She admits that the hobby, a family affair, fell by the wayside shortly after she started working at the college in 1981. It’s just one of the things in her life that has changed in the three decades since Myers Ashley joined the Texas A&M Health Science Center Baylor College of Dentistry family.

Some of the biggest transformations she has witnessed at the dental school deal with the facilities.

“I was here when they put in the middle elevators, which was very exciting to watch, but I think the biggest changes were the revamp of the sterilization areas and all the remodeling that has taken place over the last five years,” she says.

Just what has driven Myers Ashley to stay at TAMHSC-BCD all this time?

Working with students and patients is high on the list. She spends her days assisting doctors, setting up operatories for patients and making sure they’re comfortable during treatment.

“I love my job,” she says. “I never get bored, and there is always something to do.

“Time really flies here, and that is good and bad, because I can’t believe I have already been here 30 years. My only regret is I wish I had started sooner.”

Hobbies:

“I read a lot of books, mostly spiritual ones, and I also enjoy mountain-climbing books. I live in the country now and love working in the ‘huge’ yard.”

Family stats:

“I have been blessed with two children – one son and one daughter – and four grandchildren. They all live very close to me.”