Movin’ On Up: Jimmy Umana, Lab Manager, Charlottesville, VA
Movin’ On Up:
Jimmy Umana,
Lab Manager, Charlottesville, VA
Discover some of AD&I’s top talent, their real story, and what helped them grow in our network.
“If there’s a problem, then there’s a solution.” says Umana
“If there’s a problem, then there’s a solution.”
At least, that’s how twenty-six-year-old Jimmy Umana views the work he does at Affordable Dentures & Implants (ADI).
Umana is the lab manager at the ADI affiliated Charlottesville, VA location. Day in, day out, patients arrive seeking solutions for their unique needs. Umana and his team deliver every time.
“If there’s a problem, then there’s a solution."
It’s not just a viewpoint or mantra regarding work, however. For Umana, it’s reality. A personal one.
Born and raised in El Salvador, at 11 months old, Umana’s mother moved to the United States, leaving Umana and his sister in the care of their grandmother. Their mother left the country to join their father in Woodbridge, VA all in an effort to establish themselves in the land of opportunity, before moving their children there as well.
The move was delayed due to their parents’ divorce. It wasn’t until the age of 15 that Umana and his sister reluctantly relocated to the United States, leaving their beloved grandmother behind, whilst entering an unknown world and way of life
“I was upset that I wouldn’t see my Grandma again...but then I got the picture and realized that things are better here...especially at that time,” Umana says.
El Salvador, which suffered a brutal Civil War beginning in the 1980’s, has been riddled with crime for decades. The country still endures extreme gang violence, maintains a scarily high homicide rate and is still known as one of the deadliest countries in the world.
From El Salvador to Woodbridge, VA. Quite the change. Leaving his childhood home behind may have saved Umana, but as a teenage boy, unfamiliar with the English language and American culture, life still presented challenges.
“I’m not gonna lie. I didn’t want to learn the language, but then I realized that I didn’t want to get stuck.” Umana remembers.
After graduating high school, Umana had to find his own residence and make a life for himself. Though he worked two retail jobs during the week and waited tables on the weekends, making ends meet still remained difficult.
“I rented a room that cost me $400 a month. After that I had enough money left to either eat or make my car payment…and I needed my car, so I didn’t eat.”
He enrolled in a Dental Assistant program and, once class commenced, continued to work part time. It was toward the end of the program that Affordable Dentures & Implants entered the picture.
“That changed everything…I think things happen at the right time and that was it. My life changed completely.”
Following a short stint in private practice, Umana completed an internship at the ADI affiliated practice in Woodbridge, VA. A week spent in the on-site lab there peaked his interest.
“I’ve never been known as a handy guy. Then you come here and see what’s possible…what you can do with your hands and how that can make people happy. It feels so good to be able to do that.”
Back in January 2014, Umana was hired as a lab processor in Woodbridge. His work colleague, Jeff Watson, helped him settle in, training him on the plaster bench, accelerating his growth. “He put so much effort into teaching me and motivating me,” Umana recalls.
A little over a year later, one of ADI’s Managers of Laboratory Excellence reached out to Umana with an opportunity. There was a lab processor position open in the Charlottesville, VA location and the hopes were that someone in the Woodbridge practice would take it.
Umana’s reluctancy to move was high, having finally felt settled in Woodbridge, after being uprooted from El Salvador years earlier. Knowing ADI needed his help, though, he took the position, hoping for the best. Years earlier it had been heartwrenching to leave his home and Grandmother, but, in time, the decision turned out for the best. Perhaps this would be the same.
He arrived at the Charlottesville practice armed with skills, determination and optimism.
“By the time I moved I was doing plaster bench. I’d help wax, process and finish. I was learning something new everyday and that’s what made me move faster,” Umana says.
He has considered moving back up to Northern Virginia when he was offered a full technician position in Charlottesville. The practice’s dentist, impressed with Umana’s work, then offered him another opportunity. The Lab Manager role.
“I came home and discussed it with my wife. Our first son was one and a half at the time. I was so nervous to take the role and remember thinking, ‘Am I ready for this? What is this doctor seeing that I’m not seeing?’” Umana says.
Whatever the doctor saw, he saw it clearly, as Umana accepted the role and has been the Lab Manager since October 2018.
Umana’s willingness to try something new and step into the unknown stems from the changes that he had to face as a young teenager. Though the hardships he faced would be more than enough to permanently dishearten someone, he didn’t allow that. He was able to climb out and come out on top.
He states that all his progress he owes to his fellow colleagues in the lab, including Watson, his most recent lab manager, James Green and Hardy Alfredo Calderon, his first lab manager when he began his career at ADI.
“[Calderon] was such a great role model for me. I’m so thankful that he was tough with me…He told me to see the potential. I believe that a lot of how far I’ve come is because of him.”
His gratitude to his ADI teammates parallels his gratitude to the company as a whole.
“When I started working here I never imagined being able to grow so fast. Within the past five years I’ve gone from lab processor to waxer to full tech to a lab manager,” Umana continues, “That speaks a lot to who this company is…they push you to move up and give you the tools to do so.”
Though Umana has elevated his career again and again over the past five years, growth never stops as he continues to ask himself, “What can I do better? What can I work on?” Promotion after promotion stems from a commitment to learning and a deep internal drive to push for more. As he says, even still, he willingly learns “day by day.”
His story began in a land where safety and opportunities were slim. He was then torn from his loved ones and all he knew at a young age and thrown down the rabbit hole where a new language, culture, and people swirled around him. Deep down though, at the bottom of it all, lied possibility. And he was able to see it.
“I always tell my wife that if there’s a problem, then there’s a solution. Death; that’s the only thing that doesn’t have a solution. But everything else is fixable” Umana adds, “What it's going to take to fix it, I may not know but I’ll find out. And I’ll do it.”
Jimmy and many other caring people who work at AD&I or primarily with edentulism understand the value of a smile. They get hugs everyday and change lives. They also say they love working at a practice with an on-site lab. See the infographic below:
Are you ready to create smiles?
Learn more about a career at Affordable Dentures & Implants and begin the journey of bringing the value of a smile back into people’s lives.