Rob Brown

Dr. Robert Forrest Brown grew up in Oley, Pennsylvania to the view of woods, cows, corn and covered bridges.  His interest in the outdoors led him to a B.S. in Biology from Millersville University, PA, during which he spent the summers as staff at scout camps near Santa Cruz, CA.  After graduation, Rob worked in resource management at Cuyahoga Valley National Park, OH where field work focused on deer, gypsy moth and coyote population surveys, tree identification, and invasive species management.  He then ventured westward to Nebraska, where he became fascinated with paleontology and took the amazing opportunity to work at Ashfall Fossil Beds, NE.  Fun fact: the first teeth that Rob worked on belonged to barrel-bodied rhinoceroses in that ash bed (Teleoceros), aged about 12 million years old, and he carefully excavated around any fossilized plaque, leaving it in place on the teeth.

Continuing onward to play with fossils, Rob engaged in paleobotany research for his Master’s at the University of Saskatchewan.  While he still finds fossils fun to this day, at the time Rob sought a change of pace and became stationed in San Nicolás, Nicaragua as a Peace Corps volunteer to serve in the environmental sector.  Co-teaching science classes at schools, helping to build improved ovens and stoves, and meeting incredible people amounted to life-changing experiences for Rob.  It was there in Nicaragua where he learned what good bananas tasted like and confirmed that his favorite fruit is the mango.  It was also here that he developed his passion for dentistry, as he was fortuitously put in touch with and assisted on a few USA medical/dental brigades who visited to offer emergency services for folks near where he was living with his host family.

Returning to the States, Rob worked at the Shelby’s Donuts factory in Syracuse, NY while applying to dental schools.  He then attended the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine in Buffalo, NY where he earned his DDS degree.  Feeling the call to once again experience new lands, specifically beautiful forests and mountains of the Pacific Northwest, he moved to Idaho (Fall 2022).  As a general dentist at Heritage Health, Dr. Rob strives to make every patient feel at home in the dental clinic and looks forward to each day he can help patients recover and maintain their oral health.  When he is not attending to oral health needs, Rob enjoys volunteering as part of the Idaho Master Naturalist Program, hiking, ethnobotany, games and puzzles with family and friends, and getting lost in thought.