Lisa Pina-Awosika is the general dentist and owner of Aurora Dental Wellness in Portage. While in school, Pina-Awosika knew she wanted to be a part of the medical field, and found her passion when someone came into her dental school knowing very little English. When no one was able to help her due to the language barrier, Pina-Awosika stepped in and helped communicate with this patient to get what she needed.
Pina-Awosika cares a lot about her community and she wants to do the most she can to help anyone in need.
“I realized that I could really help a community that may be didn't have as much access to care,” said Pina-Awosika.
Pina-Awosika helps many people everyday, and finds her inspiration to do this from her mother.
“My mom has always motivated me and pushed me to be better and do better. She came from a humble upbringing. So seeing what she did when she was raising us and everything that she gave up when she was raising us and even to this day [has always inspired me]. She is the one that inspired me to keep on going,” said Pina-Awosika.
Pina-Awosika is a people-person and she loves to connect with the people in her community. Pina-Awosika is able to do this easily through her dentistry.
“I’ve always wanted to do more than dentistry. Dentistry was my avenue to be able to access more people. Because of that, I wanted to use Aurora as a stepping stone to reach out to those people and have the community know that we do more than dentistry here. We want to help the community, and I want my staff to also be better and do better and not be just affiliated with dentistry within the four walls here. Automatically, if you are a staff member of Aurora, you'd be a member of the Kiwanis Club of Portage. We believe in the same motto that they do. We try to do our own things here at the office, too. I feel like we have that ability to just make the world a better place by just doing a little bit at a time. If everybody did that, then I think then the world would be better,” said Pina-Awosika.
Outside of work, Pina-Awosika still has a busy home to run with her husband and her son, Joseph.
“Joseph’s in soccer right now, so we go to soccer on Saturdays. Sometimes we walk around different stores.I like going out and having family time creating memories,” said Pina-Awosika.
Pina-Awosika also loves to keep a good tight-knit relationship with her staff. Jodie, Pina-Awosika’s office manager, expresses how much Pina-Awosika has done for Aurora and the community.
“Dr. Lisa has a goal for this office and it's different from a lot of other dental offices around Northwest Indiana where our patient care is top priority. We're here for the patients and the community and everyone on our team has the same mission statement,” said Jodie.