Laurel Sorensen
Laurel is our lab technician and has 10 years of experience in orthodontics. She enjoys cooking with friends, gardening and growing her own food. She also loves running, biking, yoga, snowshoeing, and skiing – but who wouldn't, growing up in Utah.
Cathy Straup
Cathy has lived in Utah all her life and loves it, especially the mountains. She loves spending time with her husband and two teenagers. Cathy loves the snow and lives for football (Go Steelers)! She is always taking pictures of her family and loves to scrapbook. Other things you can find Cathy doing are reading, listening to music and definitely having fun, especially with her friends at Dr. Richards.
Andrea Mecham
Andrea loves spending time with her husband and step-son. She is a competitive Rock Racer which is extreme off-road racing in a modified Jeep/Buggy. She and her husband race over steep rocks, through rough terrain and over jumps. Andrea has a strong love for the ocean and sea life and loves spending time in the Florida Keys. She also has a great love for animals and owns a very sweet bunny named Max and a pretty bird named Phoebe.
Tara Wood
Tara, a born and raised Utahn, has worked in the dental/orthodontics field for 3 years now, recently joining Dr. Richards team over a year ago. She graduated from the University of Utah in Behavioral Science & Health and absolutely loves working in Utah’s healthcare industry. Away from work, Tara loves doing anything outside (running, hiking, biking, snow skiing, water skiing, camping), hanging out with friends and family, good movies and concerts, sports – especially Utah football. Tara also loves to laugh, bringing out the louder, somewhat silly side to our office!
Jeanie Despain
Jeanie is an Arizona transplant and enjoys the four seasons here in Utah. She looks forward to exploring the ski resorts and would love to learn mountain biking. Jeanie has made it through breast cancer and looks forward to this coming year being a cancer "survivor." She has a cute puppy names Bella and has fun playing and going on walks with her. Jeanie has been in the orthodontic field for over 20 years now and enjoys giving patients new smiles that they can proud to show off.
Brenda Encheff
Brenda took her first job in the dental field almost 30 years ago and has seen so many changes in technology over the years. As Dr. Richards’ Treatment Coordinator, Brenda loves working with the new patients to start their journey to a simply spectacular smile and using the latest, greatest technology of the Damon System! Away from work, she enjoys riding a tandem road bike with her husband, hiking with her dog and her two grown daughters who are the light of her life!
Kady McPhee
Kady has lived in Utah most of her life and worked for Dr. Richards for about 16 months now. She loves what she does and working with all of the patients! Kady was recently married in January of 2009 and loves cooking and baking all types of tasty treats. Even more than that, she loves animals! Kady has two kittens that she rescued named Diablo and Dolly, recently adopted a bull-mastiff mix named Rexy, but her true, pride and joy is her precious five year old Shih Tzu, Bryners!
Brittney Stephens
Brittney grew up in Salt Lake City but also lived in St. George for four years where she met her husband. She was married in April of 2007 and has recently moved back to Salt Lake. Brittney enjoys spending time with her family, scrapbooking and watching the New York Yankees play ball!
Molly Nielson
Molly is a native of Utah and enjoys the finer things in life including jeeping, snowboarding, long-boarding, hiking, shopping, yoga, karaoke and spending time with her new puppy, Coco. Molly likes to make life enjoyable and have a good time wherever she may be.
Sarah Beus
Sarah is originally from Harrisville, Utah, but has lived in Salt Lake City for our two years and loves it! In her free time she is an artist who really loves to run, write, hike, photograph and spend time with friends and family. Sarah considers herself truly lucky to work with such a great group of people, who have become such wonderful friends, almost like family – what could be better than that?!
Holly Green
When Holly is not working with her friends at Michael Richards Orthodontics she enjoys spending time with her family at a cabin in the mountains above Oakley, Utah. Holly also loves to dance, design jewelry, "shop til she drops," decorate, go to movies, lunch with friends, visit art galleries and travel to fabulous places as often as possible.
Pam Tucker
Pam has been in the dental field for about 20 years and loves seeing simply spectacular smiles being created. When not at work, she enjoys spending time with her family – you can usually find her at her sons’ basketball or football games. Pam also enjoys running, reading, cooking, golf and the sunshine!