By Gianna Puglisi
LINCROFT – On June 16, Brookdale Community College hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new dental studies building that will also operate as a free dental clinic in partnership with Red Bank’s Parker Family Health Center. Speakers from across the state joined local leaders to celebrate the opening of the first-of-its-kind clinic in Monmouth County.
From 9 a.m. to noon weekdays, volunteer dental professionals will offer cleanings, X-rays, fillings and extractions to dentally uninsured Monmouth County residents with household incomes below the federal poverty level.
Simultaneously, students of Brookdale’s dental studies program will have the chance to observe care and receive training on campus.
Eugene Cheslock, M.D., Parker Family Health Center founder and board co-chair, said he had always wanted to find a way to provide dental care to those in need. “The marriage of a volunteer free clinic and a community college providing care – an element of care that is missing to so many individuals – and in the process giving birth to professionals who will further that delivery of dental care is sensational, if not unprecedented,” Cheslock said.
Suzy Dyer, executive director of Parker Family Health Center, led the initiative from inception to the final product. “We’re a free clinic. We don’t charge for our services. We have no guaranteed source of funding,” Dyer said during the ceremony, thanking the clinic’s supporters. “Without you, we can’t do the work we do.”
Dyer told The Two River Times that she first realized the need for local, accessible dental care after meeting a Parker Family Health Center client who could not see a dentist due to their insurance status. She explored existing options in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but soon began searching for a space in Monmouth County. Brookdale President David Stout was one of the first people she called with the idea.
Stout provided the ceremony’s opening remarks. He recited Brookdale’s values of compassion, collaboration, creativity and courage. “What we’re doing here exemplifies all of those values in action,” Stout said. The clinic is located at 765 Neman Springs Road in Lincroft, formerly the Wilbur Ray Building on Brookdale’s main campus.
According to Dyer, there is a demand for dental professionals in the Red Bank area, underscoring the importance of investing in local training.
“What this clinic is going to provide is not only free dental care for our community members, but it’s going to provide workforce development in an area (where) it is sorely needed,” Dyer said.
Nashon Horsby, the deputy commissioner of Population Health for New Jersey, said the clinic is opening at a time of real need in Monmouth County and New Jersey as a whole. He said more than 120,000 Monmouth County residents are dentally uninsured, 82,000 of whom are seniors. Additionally, 2 million New Jerseyans are dentally uninsured.
Linda Schwimmer, president and CEO of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, said the dental clinic will be valuable to the community as the landscape of government-funded health insurance and healthcare changes. “We are about to be facing a real crisis,” Schwimmer said. “There is going to be so much need throughout the state for organizations and institutions just like Parker.”
The new dental clinic’s 10 dental hygiene units and two treatment rooms were built in partnership with several sponsors, including the Stone Foundation of New Jersey, Monmouth Park Charity Fund, the Abe Littenberg Foundation and Impact 100 Jersey Coast. William Lieberman, D.D.S., will lead the team of volunteers with clinical director Paul Peduto, D.D.S.
Also in attendance at the ribbon-cutting were speakers from the Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners, state Assemblywomen Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul (D-11) and Red Bank Mayor William Portman.
“This (building) is an amazing, amazing accomplishment,” Portman said. “I’m excited to go tour it, and grateful just to be part of a community that sees a need and does its best to fill that need.”
The Parker Family Health Center opened its doors in 2000 in honor of father-son physicians, Drs. James Parker Sr. and James Parker Jr., who served generations of Red Bank residents.
The article originally appeared in the July 2 – 8, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
