Dental Assistant
Services

Meet our Staff

Gail Scarola-Villanueva ¦ Emil Villanueva ¦ Helen Phillips ¦ Mark Scarola ¦ Angelo Gallego, Jr.

Gail Scarola-Villanueva, CDA, RDA
Founder, President, & Primary Instructor

Prior to founding Dental Assistant Services, Gail attended the University of North Carolina. Not initially sure of where she saw her career going she took a career inventory that suggested a career in dentistry. Shortly thereafter she became a dental assistant. What initially began as a side job tutoring future dental assistants to prepare for and pass their own credentialing exams, gradually grew into the larger and more encompassing program and business she heads today.

Gail has been a CDA

certificant and RDA for the past three decades and remains as committed today towards the success of her students as the day she began. Gail is compassionate, understanding, and empathic, both as a teacher and personally. She works hard to assure that her students get the best quality education she can provide, the most up-to-date and accurate information, and a true and genuine opportunity to not just learn, but understand and comprehend the material necessary to become qualified and capable dental assistants. She does this all with a warm and welcoming personality and a personal touch. It's clear to anyone who has met her that Gail truly cares and is genuinely interested in her students and their success.

In addition to teaching at Dental Assistant Services, Gail Scarola-Villanueva spent 26 years teaching dental assisting at Ocean County College in Toms River, NJ. While she is grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of the College, she can also appreciate not having to lug back and forth each week the many teaching materials she uses for demonstration purposes and to allow students to practice real world skills hands on. If you would like to contact her, Gail can be reached at gail@dentalassistantservices.com.

Emil Villanueva
Office Manager

Gail's husband, Emil is a former employee of Verizon who now works as the office manager. Although dentistry was not his first career, today he is very knowledgable about the intricacies of the dental assisting field, including the various requirements and expectations that current and future dental assistants are held to. In a given day, Emil will answer a wide variety of questions from students both in person and on the phone, make copies, set students up to take exams, handle billing and scheduling issues, as well as other miscellaneous responsibilities that come up during the day. Emil has quickly developed a reputation for being a very knowledgable and invaluable part of the Dental Assistant Services family.

When not at the office, Emil enjoys a variety of artistic hobbies. While his interests span a wide array of topics, canvasses, and projects, perhaps his longest standing artistic passion is photography. Examples of his photographic work can be seen throughout the office. Emil can be reached by phone at 732-919-1816.

Helen Phillips
Administrative Assistant

Gail's mother Helen, was previously employed at the New Jersey Blind Citizen's Association in Leonardo, NJ. After leaving this agency she saw an opportunity to help out her ever busy daughter. Helen spends a lot of time working remotely on updating and preparing typed and written materials for student use. She is also responsible for filing and organizing, editing and correcting, coordinating office tasks, photocopying, and other miscellaneous needs that come up over the course of a day. Helen can be reached by phone at 732-919-1816.

Mark Scarola
Webmaster, Researcher, and Business Consultant

Gail's son Mark, is a graduate of Syracuse University and Smith College with degrees in psychology and social work, respectively. He has a background in psychological research, personal counseling, and teaching as a college professor (apparently teaching runs in the family). In using this background he created a number of the continuing education courses available for sale through DAS. Mark is also responsible for helping to prepare and update study materials and for the design, creation, and upkeep of this website. Additionally, he has served in a consultative role around general business and technological issues for over a decade. Mark can be reached at webmaster@dentalassistantservices.com.

Angelo Gallego, Jr.
IT Consultant and Guest Radiology Instructor

A friend of the family, Angelo has a master's degree in computer science and a history of working for various information technology (IT) companies including Lucent Technologies and Verizon. He holds a CompTIA A+ certification designed to show competence in areas of IT including installation, maintenance, networking, and security. He is also a co-founder of DayStar Computer Services which helps businesses and individuals with IT and computer related issues either on-site (including in your home) and/or online. Angelo is also a licensed dental radiologic technologist in the state of New Jersey. He will periodically fill in for Gail as a guest instructor when needed and can also be hired to provide private tutoring in radiology. Angelo can be reached at angelo@dentalassistantservices.com.

Learn about the history of DAS