Fall 2026

TOP DOCTORS

Our Top Docs lift everyone around them

Announcing our 2026 Top Doc Honorees. As repeat recipients, each of these Optum physicians are trusted by patients, an inspiration to colleagues, and living proof that we’re better, together.

Russell Gollard, MD

Medical Oncology

Optum Cancer Care

Margaret Hwang, MD

Pediatrics

Southwest Medical

Check your

Ricardo Vinuya, MD Allergy & Immunology

Optum Allergy

Khursheeda Pathan, MD

Pediatrics

Southwest Medical

Blair Duddy, MD

Pediatrics

Southwest Medical

Johnson Kay, DO

Rheumatology

Southwest Medical

Save water OUTDOORS with a Water Smart Landscape

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BY KWAME ONWUAC HI

THE SECRETS OF SPICE AND SMOKE ARE NOT LEARNED THEY ARE UNEARTHED.

SAVOR THE FIRE

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ROAD TO RECOVERY

Tackling substance use among Southern Nevada’s most vulnerable population

The Sun and the Review-Journal have shaped Vegas history. What happens if they part ways?

DISCOMFORT

Preserving Native food ways By Jimmy RomoBuenrostro

DEVELOPMENT

Commercial Center is still on life support By Rafaela Gandolfo Bustamante

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Editor’s Note

READ, AND READ AGAIN

There are advantages to doing digital editions of a magazine weekly, then compiling them into print editions once a quarter. One that will jump out at you in this issue is how we’re able to hit so many occasions — back-to-school, Nevada Day, Route 66’s anniversary — in one issue. It weaves a thread of relevance from the table of contents through the end note. There’s a lighthearted tinge to it in some cases, such as the 100th birthday of Route 66 or the wiring (by Morse Code!) of the Nevada Constitution to Washington, D.C. As a city-regional, most of our stories fall under the “lifestyle” rubric, rather than “issues.”

Yet we’re no lightweights, and you barely have to scratch the surface to pick up the hum of angst buzzing below the fun. That’s hinted at from the get-go in our All Things Opener on education, a subject you can’t even mention without invoking a sense of urgency.

And that’s a subtle hint compared to this issue’s feature on drug use among unhoused people. This deeply reported story started with a ride-along and developed over the months of research and interviews that it inspired.

Wherever your head’s at as you open this issue — whether you need a quick verbal snack break, inspiration to take action or a current events rage fix — we’ve got you covered. So, pick up this issue many times, and read to your heart’s (or mind’s) content.

Enjoy, Heidi

ABOUT THE POET

Poet Rodney J. Lee provided the poem “Jacob Dodson: Beyond the Negro Who Rode with Fremont” that appears on this issue’s back page. “I’ve lived here for over 40 years, a local transplant,” he says. “I was looking for folks who looked like me in Nevada’s history.” Dodson, who rode on three expeditions with John C. Fremont, was a resilient and talented explorer. “I was captivated by Dodson’s tale,” Lee says. “I kind of assumed his persona in much of my book Along These Trails .  That Black scout spirit. Me, my bicycle, J.D., and the vast Nevada wilderness. More than a poem, it’s a vibe.” The latest of Lee’s four books of poetry is Soul Brothers, which mixes family history with various mythologies.

CORRECTION

Regarding the May 2025 issue: In “Three Questions: Joshua Vermillion,” Vermillion is an architecture professor only (not also a working architect, as previously implied). Desert Companion regrets the error.

PRESIDENT & CEO Favian Perez

MANAGING EDITOR Heidi Kyser

ART DIRECTOR Scott Lien

DIRECTOR OF PHILANTHROPY

ASSISTANT EDITOR Anne Davis

EDITOR-AT-LARGE Scott Dickensheets

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Ryan Vellinga

KNPR PRODUCERS AND REPORTERS

Paul Boger, Yvette Fernandez, Mike Prevatt , Jimmy Romo-Buenrostro

KNPR INTERN Rafaela Gandolfo Bustamante

ASSISTANT CORPORATE SUPPORT MANAGER Allison Hall

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES  Markus Van’t Hul, Britt Quintana

EVENTS AND REVENUE SYSTEMS SPECIALIST Crystal Jepson

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Jeff Jacobs

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Josh Bell, Melissa Gill, Janis Hashe, Rodney J. Lee, Lorraine Blanco Moss, Reannon Muth, Lissa Townsend Rodgers, Geoff Schumacher, Tonya Snyder, Stacy J. Willis

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Rick Arevalo, Ronda Churchill, Jennifer Dahbura, Jennifer Tapias Derch, Miguel Manich, Jeff Schied, Kyle Smart, Mark E. Silverstein

CONTACT

EDITORIAL: Heidi Kyser (702) 259-7855 heidi@desertcompanion.com

ART: Scott Lien (702) 258-9895 scott@knpr.org

ADVERTISING: (702) 259-7808 sales@nevadapublicradio.org

SUBSCRIPTIONS: (702) 259-9895 subscriptions@desertcompanion.com

Desert Companion is published quarterly by Nevada Pub lic Radio, 1289 S. Torrey Pines Dr., Las Vegas, NV 89146. It is available by subscription at desertcompanion.vegas, or as part of Nevada Public Radio membership. It is also distributed free at select locations in the Las Vegas Valley. All photos, artwork, and ad designs printed are the sole property of Desert Companion ed or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. The views of Desert Companion writers are not necessarily the views of or Nevada Public Radio. Contact us for back issues, which are available for purchase for $7.95.

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS

AMANDA MOORE-SAUNDERS | Conduit Entertainment chair

ANDREA GOEGLEIN, PH.D | ServingSuccess vice chair

SCOTT NIELSON | Nielson Consulting, LLC treasurer

FAVIAN PEREZ | Nevada Public Radio secretary

DIRECTORS

CYNTHIA A. DREIBELBIS | Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

FRED J. KEETON | Keeton Iconoclast Consulting, LLC

EDWIN C. KINGSLEY, MD | Comprehensive Cancer Centers

JEFFREY REIMAN | The Broadband Group

ERNEST STOVALL | Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino

KELLIE VANDER VEUR | Retired

ROB ZIEMS | Gaming Arts, LLC

DIRECTORS EMERITI

CYNTHIA ALEXANDER | Dickinson Wright, PLLC

SUSAN M. BRENNAN | The Brennan Consulting Group, LLC

DAVE CABRAL | Business Finance Corp.

LOUIS CASTLE | Childlike Wonder Games

PATRICK N. CHAPIN, ESQ. | Patrick N. Chapin, Ltd.

ELIZABETH FRETWELL | C4ward Strategies, LTD

DON HAMRICK | Retired

GAVIN ISAACS | Games Global

CHRIS MURRAY | Avissa Corporation

JERRY NADAL | Luna Entertainment Consulting Services

WILLIAM J. “BILL” NOONAN | William J. Noonan Consulting

KATHE NYLEN | Retired

ANTHONY J. PEARL | Baha Mar

MARK RICCIARDI, ESQ. | Fisher Phillips, LLP

MICKEY ROEMER | Roemer Gaming

TIM WONG | Arcata Associates

LAMAR MARCHESE | president emeritus

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Live Wide Open

ALL THINGS

IDEAS, CULTURE, FOOD, AND OTHER WAYS TO CONNECT WITH YOUR CITY

Hard Decisions

Declining enrollment in Nevada’s public schools is forcing officials to plan for a new future

BY Paul Boger

The 2026-27 school year is upon us, and while we may not know exactly how many students will enroll in public schools statewide, we do know there will be fewer.

At least, that’s what Clark County School officials are expecting. During a school board meeting in April, district officials shared upcoming enrollment projections of around 2,300 fewer students this school year than last.

It’s a new trend, CCSD Superintendent Jhone Ebert told district trustees during that meeting: “For decades our narrative was defined by rapid population growth, and we were constantly in a race to build schools. As enrollment shifts here and across the country, we have a unique opportunity; we can move from keeping up to intentionally designing for excellence.”

Just last school year, statewide public K-12 enrollment declined by around 2 percent, with all but three public school districts reporting a drop, according to Nevada Department of Education data.

The most notable exception was the state’s public charter school system, which grew by roughly 11 percent in 2025-26 compared with the previous school year. That’s largely because six schools that Clark County School District previously oversaw transferred to the charter school authority’s oversight last summer.

Charter schools have reported consistent, steady growth since state lawmakers created the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority in 2011. Now, more than 70,000 students are enrolled in a public charter school in Nevada, making it the second-largest school district in the state. That’s compared to about 30,000 a decade ago.

Parents have also increasingly turned to homeschooling as an educational alternative to traditional public schools. Roughly 6 percent of families with school-aged children in Nevada reportedly homeschooled in 2023-2024, according to the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. Previous analysis from The Nevada Independent shows that the number of families homeschooling their children is roughly double pre-pandemic numbers. (For more on homeschooling, see p. 54.)

“Education should never be one-sizefits-all,” said Valeria Gurr in a recent op-ed for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She was voicing support of a tax credit for donations made to qualified scholarship-granting organizations, which in turn helps students attend private school.

As a senior policy and advocacy fellow at the American Federation for Children, Gurr has long argued that incentivizing programs to give families more say over their children’s education benefits the community as a whole. “Parents know their children best, yet too often families are limited by income, geography, or a school environment that simply is not the right fit,” she wrote. Another issue hampering enrollment rates is people not having as many kids as they used to. According to Pew Research, Nevada’s fertility rate fell more than 17 percent from 2011 to 2023. That’s six points higher than the national average, which

also declined by roughly 11 percent. Overall, between 2011 and 2023, Nevada experienced the nation’s fifth-largest drop in birth rates.

The report highlighted several potential causes, including steep declines in teenage pregnancies. It also noted that women were waiting longer to have children due to financial concerns about student debt, rising housing costs, and pessimism about the economic outlook for future generations. Why do enrollment declines matter? To put it simply, fewer students mean less money.

Nevada funds education using a formula known as the pupil-centered plan. The state appropriates a base amount of funding to a district based on each student’s needs. If a student needs free and reduced lunch or if they’re an English language learner, then more money is allocated based on that student. So, when a student changes schools, the money follows the student to the new school. But if that student leaves the district altogether, then the district loses that money outright.

In May, the Clark County School Board approved a tentative $3.8 billion state revenue budget for the 2026-27 school year. That’s about $60 million less than the previous year. The reduction is largely due to fluctuations in enrollment numbers.

CCSD Chief Financial Officer Justin Dayhoff said the budget already includes many hard decisions that principals have

made. “We did this based on those projections for next year in part so we can continue as a district to be intentional with our spending,” he said.

It all snowballed into what education experts have dubbed the “enrollment cliff,” and it appears Nevada’s public schools have careened over the edge. So, what are school districts doing about it?

In Northern Nevada, Washoe County officials have proposed eliminating gifted and some technical programs, cutting staff, and closing older schools. During one conversation about what to do with the growing number of empty buildings, the district’s chief operations officer, Adam Searcy, framed it as a “brand-new world.”

“We are trying to judiciously take this one step at a time,” he said. “While we need a partnership with the community in everything that we do, this is different than normal in that we deeply need to find a future use for these properties that is of benefit to the community.”

In February, Clark County announced that more than 1,200 school employees were at risk of losing their jobs due to a lack of funding. District officials have since said they believe that natural staff attrition will help keep most of those people with the district. Of course, hoping staff retire and move on at the same rate that students leave does not make a cogent plan for the future.

CCSD Superintendent Ebert previously told Desert Companion that the district was also reviewing its facilities plan to better utilize school spaces. That could include revitalizing older schools rather than building new ones, and merging schools when consolidation allows, she said, adding that working with partners could fill unneeded space.

“We have over 1,500 portable (classrooms) in the Clark County School District. We’re not going to need those portables anymore,” Ebert said. “Do we sell them off? Do we have other entities come in — nonprofits that partner with us like the United Way or Communities in Schools — do we make those spaces now available for our partners in our schools?”

Still, it may not be enough to ward off future closures and layoffs.

As it happens, Nevada is not walking off the enrollment cliff alone. Massachusetts, Virginia, Michigan, Texas, and California all face similar issues. Perhaps, somewhere across the country, educational leaders can find a parachute on the way down. ✦

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The Mother Road

A drive through the history and current attractions of Route 66, on the legendary highway’s centennial anniversary

BY Lissa Townsend Rodgers

This year marks not just an American anniversary, but the 100th birthday of national icons like Chuck Berry, Marilyn Monroe — and Route 66. Route 66 extended 2,448 miles from the skyscrapers of downtown Chicago to the seagulls of the Santa Monica pier. Running through the heart of America, it was dubbed the Mother Road by John Steinbeck … but that name also symbolizes what was left behind as the nation grew up. Travel over smoother, speedier freeways has emptied the small towns once fueled by the motorists who stopped at their traffic lights and postcard racks.

But a big birthday is always a good reason to visit home. Slow down and take the long way — savor hearty cooking, admire old photos, pick up a tchotchke or two.

Flagstaff to Seligman

Ponderosa pines and spruce trees line the hills outside Flagstaff, the town itself sprawling outward from a downtown centered on the train station and hotels like the Monte Vista and the Weatherford, whose style is Old West and whose guest books contain names like John Wayne and Zane Grey.

As you drive out of town, drugstores and car rentals are interspersed with throwbacks such as Starlite Lanes bowling, Miz Zip’s diner, and motels with signage in various states of renovation or disrepair — watch out for the gloriously animated coach-and-horses of the Western Hills Motel. These signs are some of the route’s top attractions, says designer and historian Barkev Msrlyan of Merch

Motel. “Handcrafted and custom to their location, they represent the families that worked hard to create an interesting destination for travelers.”

The roadside empties and the sky widens as you wind into Williams. Rod’s Steak House opened in 1946 and still serves prime rib, steaks, and baked potatoes. The Canyon Club and the Sultana Bar have each been open for over seven decades and embrace a neon on the outside/taxidermy on the inside aesthetic. As Williams is the “gateway to the Grand Canyon,” the Grand Canyon Railway & Hotel offers train rides to the South Rim as well as Wild West shootouts every morning.

Train and road trips allow people to slow down and create personal, lasting memories, says Jeff D’Arpa, Grand Canyon Railway general manager. While Route 66 epitomizes auto culture, it’s also a treat for train freaks, as railroad tracks loop around and along it.

The road to Seligman is dotted with replicas of old Burma-Shave signs, strings of jokes and puns to distract drivers lulled by yellow lines and ocher dunes. Seligman is a tiny town with a big personality that will please fans of both cars and Cars. It allegedly inspired the Disney film, and the two blocks of gift shops, cafes, and motels are lined with old Ford pickups and Chevy sedans painted with eyes and grins. The center of the whimsical excess is Angel & Vilma Delgadillo’s Original Route 66

Gift Shop and Delgadillo’s Snow Cap. The latter draws a line out the door for its “dead chicken” and “cheeseburger with cheese,” as well as dozens of milkshake flavors.

Seligman to Barstow

Many of the towns that flash by are down to one or two buildings. Hackberry, Arizona, is basically the Hackberry General Store , a snack and souvenir stop in the middle of nowhere. The outside is lined with peeling stickers and fading signs, the inside wallpapered with glossies of old movie stars and the occasional costumed mannequin looming up out of a corner (not the first or last surprise mannequin you’ll encounter on Route 66).

Kingman has a high concentration of beautifully maintained motel signs, luminous trapezoids, and shimmering ovals imploring travelers to pull over for a photo if not a night’s rest. Mr. D’z epitomizes Route 66 dining: adorned on the outside with maps and murals, the inside with chrome and vinyl, and an abundance of kitschy memorabilia. The menu leans into burgers, fries, and shakes, the official 66 meal.

The Mother Road does not count carbs or calories. Her plates are full of burgers with bacon, fries with cheese, and milkshakes with softball-sized dollops of whipped cream. If you’re seeking something stronger, the Sportsman Bar has served libations to thirsty travelers for 120 years.

You eventually pass Laughlin on your way to Needles and the expanse of the Mojave. The town of Amboy is home to Roy’s, perhaps the most outrageous of Route 66’s Googie gas station-motel combos. The former is operational; the latter is in an abandoned-yet-pristine state that feels surreal — especially when the occasional small plane or fleet of vintage cars suddenly manifests. Ludlow is the Ludlow Cafe and the Ludlow Motel, which share a mid-century, mock-colonial aesthetic, heavy on wood tone and gas lamp motifs.

Barstow to Santa Monica

After miles of abandoned towns and empty roads, the busy sprawl of Barstow is a shock. The Mother Road curves along the north side of town past Route 66 Motel, Route 66 Pizza Palace, Mota’s Route 66 Tires, Route 66 Vape and Smoke, and Route 66 Guns & Ammo. The Route 66 Mother Road Museum is the best of the many road museums. Located in a beautifully restored Harvey House building, it features photos, signs, artifacts, and vintage cars.

As you roll into Victorville, stop at Emma Jean’s Holland Burger Cafe. It’s a mint-tinted, sharp-angled building that you may recognize as serving Uma Thurman a glass of water in Kill Bill: Vol. 2, but you should order one of their juicy, high-stacked burgers (no smashing here).

After a highway merge to cross the dreaded Cajon pass, Route 66 breaks the foothills, skipping between a dozen streets

and boulevards, where suburban blandness is home to quirky landmarks. The Wigwam Motel is one of a dying retro breed, a ring of concrete “teepees” around a kidney-shaped pool. The nearby Magic Lamp Inn is an exercise in perfectly preserved midcentury excess, loaded with stonework and stained glass, and a side of Elvis impersonator with your filet mignon.

In a world where everything is a franchise of a subsidy of a parent company, many of the businesses along Route 66 are unique and family-owned. As Barkev says, “We’ve lost so much charm due to corporate grayness, it’s important to celebrate and support the whimsy and hard work of independently owned establishments.”

Cruising into Pasadena, you notice the buildings draw closer together — Spanish Colonial storefronts, Renaissance revival apartments, art deco theaters-turned-churches. If you need a break

from the road, the cozy, scarlet-toned Colorado Bar has a curated jukebox and chill crowd. Afterward, step next door to Poo Bah Record Shop to peruse its thoughtfully selected vinyl assortment. Naturally, the road of dreams runs through Hollywood, passing by what was once the Warner Bros. Studio, as well as Paramount Studios and Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where movie heroes from Douglas Fairbanks Jr. to Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) have found their final resting places. The stars also smile down at the Formosa Cafe, a fantasy of art deco orientalism, where you can dine in a former train car or Lana Tuner’s favorite booth.

The final route marker is located on the Santa Monica pier — look for the line of tourists waiting for their photo op. As elsewhere along 66, the most excited travelers aren’t from the United States: The kitsch and history, the slow speed and small scale that would bore Americans seem to add to the trip’s appeal for foreigners. Next to the marker is Pier Burger, which fittingly bills itself as “the last burger on land,” if you need a final fix.

If you’re tired of burgers and ice cream, return to shore and the glowing neon of Chez Jay’s, a combination of peanuts-onthe-floor dive bar and checkered-tablecloth Italian restaurant. Or head for the oceanfront streamline tower of The Eden hotel and its rooftop Velvet Rose lounge, a plush velvet aerie with cocktails named after pioneers like Hedy Lamar and Nellie Bly. Opened as the Shangri-La Apartment Hotel in 1940, the Eden became a vacation spot for U.S. soldiers during World War II and has been a hotel ever since.

“This was a place of refuge, of relaxation,” says Eden General Manager Danielle Delcambre. She says the building’s history is its biggest draw. “We think about different times, and we’d kind of like to transport ourselves back to them.”

Sipping from a chilled coupe while gazing out at the ocean seems miles and decades away from beer in a desert saloon or milkshake in a roadside café … and it is.

A Route 66 drive is a trip not just through miles, but through years.

“The road brings people together in a special way,” Barkev says. And it’s not just the travelers currently sharing the road that you bond with, but also those who have ridden the Mother Road before you and those who will after.

Here’s to another hundred years. ✦

SOCIETY

Third Space Is the Charm

The search for a comfy spot away from home or work

BY Reannon Muth

Like many who work remotely, I spend a lot of time in coffee shops. In fact, I’m sitting in one right now — Coffee Madness (coffeemadnesslvnv.com), in Silverado Ranch — typing this as my 5-year-old eats fruit snacks and picks through a pack of board game cards. Growing up, many of my favorite TV characters were regulars in neighborhood spots where everyone knew their name, and I assumed my adulthood would be similar. But that hasn’t happened. My friends and I don’t have a favorite coffeehouse with an orange tufted couch, and no one ever asks if I’ll be ordering the usual. I have yet to find my third place.

Sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term “third place” in 1989 to describe spots that aren’t your home (first place) or work (second), but a third location, where you socialize and hang out, either for free or for the price of a cheap drink or membership.

Traditionally, that’s meant coffee shops or taverns. For centuries, men in wigs and robes would meet there to debate politics or hash out business ideas. Today, third places encompass a wider range of public and private spaces — from dog parks to, for some, the local gym. So, what makes a third place fit, and where can you find one in Southern Nevada?

What Makes a Good Third Place?

Victoria Hart, artist and owner of Pink Kitty Creative, says it has to be chill enough to make people

Find Your Third Space

CAFÉS

❱❱❱ Meepleville: For $10, hang out all day and play more than 2,000 board, card, and strategy games. Food, coffee, and alcohol are available at reasonable prices. meepleville.com

❱❱❱ Clay Paper Ink: For a fee ($20 for two hours), use the art studio and supplies to create whatever you like while sipping tea or coffee. claypaperink.com

❱❱❱ Pedal & Pour: Cyclists, take note. This café and bike repair shop in southwest Las Vegas hosts an all-levels Coffee Ride on Sundays at 7 a.m. pedalpour.com

❱❱❱ Mothership Coffee Roasters (at Fergusons Downtown): Chat with friends on the sofas, catch a concert on the lawn, or post up on the rooftop patio, as City Cast host Jesse Merrick regularly does. fergusonsdowntown.com

PARKS

❱❱❱ Sunset Park: This is the largest of Clark County’s 100-plus parks. Its central location, pond, and walking trails make it good for a late-afternoon hang.

❱❱❱ Exploration Peak Park: Excellent place to have a picnic in Mountain’s Edge, thanks to the grassy area sitting in the shade of the 2,846-foot peak.

LIBRARIES

❱❱❱ The crown jewel of third places, libraries offer quiet, safe spots to hang out for free until closing time. Knit in one of the Creation Labs, record a podcast in a soundproof studio, or join one of hundreds of free events, like the book club “Tales and Mocktails.” thelibrarydistrict.org

RESTAURANTS

❱❱❱ Chicken N Pickle: This Henderson restaurant has 14 pickleball courts and lawn games where groups can eat, drink, and play. chickennpickle.com

❱❱❱ The courtyard at UnCommons: Behind Urth Caffé is a spot that’s spacious, shaded, and busy, but not overly loud. On weekends, there’s often live music. The city needs “more spaces like that but littered closer together,” Merrick says. uncommons.com Reannon Muth

want to linger. “Being an artist, I like artsy places,” she says. “I like The Writer’s Block (thewritersblock.org), because it’s got a really comfortable vibe.”

Wayne Schulatz, co-owner of Meepleville Board Game Cafe ( meepleville.com ), believes open-mindedness is an important element. He strives to offer a “safe and welcoming establishment where people can be themselves.”

Clay Paper Ink (claypaperink. com) owner Melinda Stender thinks a good third place is a nondenominational, “even” space that focuses on bringing people together around a “cool activity.”

Why Aren’t There More?

Whatever makes a good one, there aren’t enough of them, says Jesse Merrick, City Cast Las Vegas host. “I feel like Vegas is so unique because everything is centered on the Strip,” Merrick says. “The real hub of our city isn’t built for locals to walk around and work out of. We’re missing a true city center.”

“Other cities have a square or a fountain that people can go to that we don’t have,” says Dan Kalny, a Chicago transplant and the co-owner of the cafe Pedal & Pour (pedalpour.com).

Stender’s struggle has been that typical third-place patrons are spread out. While she hopes to use her art café and studio to nurture the city’s creative community, that’s been a struggle so far, she says. “Las Vegas is a little odd (compared to other cities). The artists are very independent of each other.”

Do Your Part!

As I leave the café, I smile my thanks to the barista but don’t say anything. Despite coming here every week for months, I’ve never spoken more than a handful of words to anyone, opting instead to sit on the scuffed leather sofa with my headphones on, the international sign for “do not disturb.”

Clearly, one reason I have yet to settle into a third place like the ones I idolized on TV is that I’ve never given any of them a real chance. The baristas and bartenders may not know my name, but I don’t know theirs, either.

“You have to get out in the world and socialize,” advises Hart, who regularly makes the effort. “I think that’s something we’re really losing touch with. Human connection is so important. Third spaces provide an opportunity to connect.” ✦

THREE QUESTIONS

Isaac Ariail Reed

This cultural critic sees Vegas as a door to a new theory of modernity

BY Scott Dickensheets

Isaac Ariail Reed isn’t your ordinary parachute intellectual. A sociology prof at the University of Virginia, he’s fascinated by Las Vegas — he’s writing at least one book about it. But unlike many with the Vegas bug, he visits frequently, has interviewed dozens of culture-shapers, and was delighted that his essay in The Hedgehog Review last fall generated local pushback. “I come from the Jewish dinner table school of conversation,” Reed says. “I tend to thrive on back-and-forth.”

What brings you to our modest little town?

I’m trained in historical sociology, where you ask questions about the major transformations in human life over the last 500 years. And I think there’s something in Las Vegas that is a culmination of some of those transformations. There’s something intense and accelerated about Las Vegas history. Studying that in the archives at UNLV has been fruitful for me, for my understanding of the world in general.

What sort of vantage point on the world does Vegas offer you?

Vegas puts some things at stake in a clear and concrete way that are abstract and under the surface elsewhere. For example, wild changes in architecture right next to each other. Las Vegas puts up the question of what it means to have a bricolage of buildings, to design them quickly, and then destroy them and design new ones — to take wild chances that may not work out.

You’ve invoked the late Dave Hickey, among the most prominent writers about Las Vegas. Who’d win a head-to-head game of Texas hold’em between you two?

FOR MORE from Reed, tune into the Desert Air podcast.

I’m gonna say, if this was a metaphorical game, he would definitely win, because he opened a door that I am trying to walk through to see what theories of modernity are on the other side. But I think if it was an actual game, I like my chances. He was a bit of a gambler. I’m not a terrible poker player. So, I think I could take some money. ✦

Tap, Tap, Tap

On the occasion of Nevada Day, remembering the state constitution’s unusual trip to Washington, D.C

BY Paul Boger

1864

President Lincoln wants more votes in Congress for his legislative agenda; Nevada statehood is one way to get them.

175

Number of pages in the final transcript.

16,543

Words in the Nevada Constitution.

2 days required to complete the sending process.

October 26, 1964

The election is coming up! Gotta file the state’s constitution in Washington, D.C., by this day.

7 HOURS: Time it took Carson City telegrapher James H. Guild to transmit the document to a telegrapher in Salt Lake City, who had to relay it to Chicago, who had to relay it to Philadelphia, and finally to the War Department’s telegraph office in D.C.

0

Orthopedic doctors in Carson City James Guild could see about his aching telegraph hand.

17 YEARS

$4,300

Cost of the transmission.

Roughly $90,000 in today’s dollars.

3 Days after receipt of the document that Lincoln declared Nevada a state.

The Nevada Constitution reigned as the longest document ever sent by telegraph; it was superseded in 1881 by a transatlantic transmission of the New Testament.

19 22 &

Number of dashes and dots, respectively, in the phrase “Nevada Constitution.”

2

Failed previous attempts to deliver a copy, one by overland mail, the other by sea.

3rd attempt:

By telegraph. In Morse code.

60%

Number of newly minted Nevadans who voted for Lincoln a week later.

FEATURING CARMINA BURANA PLUS SERENADE OCTOBER 2-4, 2026

DISCOMFORT ZONE

Dr. AI, I Presume?

Should I wait forever to see a doctor — or trust my healthcare to new technology?

BY Stacy J. Willis

Iworry a lot. I’ve had therapy; apparently, it’s some sort of hypervigilance thing. But after plenty of time in the chair, I concluded that my amygdala simply has no off switch — What was your first childhood memory? etc. has yet to produce meaningful change. I’ve always had a ridiculously chaotic mind and a sleepless fight-or-flight response. Other than that, I’ve enjoyed pretty good health.

And so, here in midlife, when I started having new aches and pains and not infrequent bouts of unprompted crying comorbid with the 2024 election, I — like any good hypochondriac — turned with complete confidence to Artificial Intelligence.

With the frequent aid of generative AI, I not only discovered that I am about to die from innumerable terrifying health conditions, but, concurrently, I figure I’m now about three-quarters of the way to achieving a Medical Doctor degree.

It began when I retrieved my lab reports from a portal, because it’s next to impossible to get an appointment with my primary certified nursing assistant in this city, with its massive lack of accessible, qualified healthcare. All kinds of lab numbers that should be green were red, meaning out of range, meaning holy shit, meaning I grabbed my phone and began asking my friend, confidante, and always-available

doctor what it all meant. That’s the advancement that makes generative AI so great. No longer do I have to Google my health concerns and then wade through endless peer-reviewed papers to compare and contrast and deduce — i.e., think. Now the generative part of AI does all of that for me, and with a ridiculously kind bedside manner that makes me want to lay my head on its shoulder.

After telling AI my cholesterol numbers, which are in the red for the first time in my life, it initially suggested something my fictional human doctor might: diet and exercise. But what if it’s not that simple? What else could it be? What about this headache I sometimes wake up with, and the extremely rapid heartbeat I get when driving near ill-bred teenagers on e-bikes? After three intense minutes of semi-relevant

questions-and-answers, my pocket medical savant and I whittled my problem down to artheroembolic renal disease. Well. At least I know. Apparently, hardened plaque in my aorta may have “ruptured, shattered, and shot thousands of tiny cholesterol crystals into my blood,” as happens with 1 to 2 percent of the population, according to AI. Now these “sharp, needle-like crystals” may lodge inside the microscopic blood vessels in my kidneys and cause “severe, irreversible damage” that could lead to organ failure.

Oh, God.

How do I prevent crystals from shooting into my kidneys? What signs should I watch out for? AI breaks it down in an outline, including something about “blue toe syndrome” and — oh, dear — headaches and a general feeling of being profoundly unwell.

I spend the next few nights investigating my toes and adjusting my pillow to eliminate the headaches, reporting every twitch to AI. What I’m describing, of course, isn’t just garden-variety hypochondria. It’s a new world! It’s called cyberchondria . I asked AI about it: “Cyberchondria is a relatively new term coined by psychologists to describe the escalation of anxiety brought on by repeatedly searching for medical information online. It’s the modern evolution of the classic medical student syndrome, where reading about a disease makes you instantly feel its symptoms. Except with AI, you aren’t just reading a static Wikipedia article; you are engaged in a dynamic, escalating dialogue with an entity that answers every single follow-up question you throw at it, no matter how unhinged.”

I balk at that unhinged thing, as we are talking about life and death medium-to-high cholesterol here, but whatever.

The truth is, this AI practice can be dangerous in some cases. We are in a rapidly evolving moment on this front, and healthcare companies are working constantly to integrate AI into the medical field, seeing it as a beneficial tool to augment care, especially in underserved areas.

But stories abound about harm resulting from people taking nascent AI’s oftentimes faulty — even generatively hallucinatory — advice. In some cases, people put off medical care in life-threatening emergencies based on wrong information from AI. In others, doctors report patients falling into deep despair when AI has given them an errant short life expectancy prognosis. A February study in Communications Medicine found that while medical AI models are improving, their accuracy remains “insufficient for standalone use.” For now, it’s advisable to give AI simple prompts to retrieve basic information, but not for actionable diagnoses.

What nobody recommends is becoming obsessed with it. Not even AI. In fact, when I questioned

AI about my potential cyberchondria, I was shocked— nay, hurt — that it suggested I create some boundaries with it.

Perhaps I do need more therapy. My AI suggested several ways to remedy this. Among them: Enforce strict search criteria, avoid late-night searches, stop feeding the anxiety loop, tolerate the uncertainty, and stop constantly checking your physical symptoms.

“And how am I supposed to do that while still addressing my high cholesterol numbers?” I demanded, a twinge unhinged.

“Establish a doctor-first rule: Make a commitment to always consult your primary care doctor about health concerns before ever turning to a digital search.” Now it was obvious that AI was just f’n with me, having generative fun at my expense. Just moments before, it had agreed with me that it’s very hard to get primary care in Las Vegas “because Nevada is facing a severe, systemic healthcare workforce shortage. The state consistently ranks 48th in the nation for primary care physicians per capita. All 17 of Nevada’s counties, including Clark County, are officially designated as Federal Health Professional Shortage Areas” by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

As with so many things in the world today, I hesitantly accept that there is very little I can do but adapt. Our ailing healthcare system is obviously one. Of course we must still advocate for accessible, quality healthcare.

Regarding medical AI, I can put away my phone, lay off the bageland-cream-cheese breakfasts, and go for a brisk walk. What was it AI said? “Diet and exercise.”

Which I already knew. It’s been a rough period in history to be hyperattentive, but we’ve all had to figure out a balance between panic and inaction, to remember our core human values and personal agency.

Maybe we know more about the answers than we think we do. Maybe we know when — and when not — to rely on intelligence that’s artificial. ✦

A Different Way of Thinking

Tribal education initiatives encourage Native youth to attend college, and help make it possible

BY Jimmy Romo-Buenrostro

Along the back of the gallery in the Clark County Commission Chambers sits a large group of Native American high school students from Nevada, Arizona, and Montana. They’re all wearing black T-shirts that read “UNLV … 2026 Native Youth Camp.” Tick Segerblom, Clark County Commissioner for District E and former state lawmaker, sees them from the dais and walks up.

“Thank you all for coming, it means a lot to us,” Segerblom tells the group. “Don’t gamble, though.”

The students are a part of this year’s UNLV Native Youth College Camp. Over four days, they explore the city and receive presentations from industry experts about the career paths available when they attend college. Camps like these help Native American students visualize themselves studying the fine arts, STEM, hospitality, policy, and law.

One of the students planning out her future is Brooklyn Williams, an enrolled member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe who’ll enter her senior year of high school in the fall. But she already knows she wants to attend UNLV to pursue either hospitality or law. Since the college is in Nevada, and she is a member of a federally recognized tribe, Williams would also qualify for the Native American Fee Waiver, which makes school even more affordable.

“I feel like I have a lot of support to get the funding, to help me decide where I can put all that funding in each section,” Williams says.

As of 2019, the rate of Native Americans who had at least a high school education was 88 percent, according to data from the National Center for Educational Statistics — only a few points away from the national average that year. But the rate of Natives with a bachelor’s degree or higher was just under 17 percent, less than half the national average of 36 percent. It became apparent that there is a Native American higher-education crisis.

cation being one of those places where it wasn’t us,” she says.

When Drye-Romero graduated from high school in 1989, she didn’t have the same resources Indigenous students have today, she says, noting, “Nobody talked to me about college.”

Her father helped her fill out an application to tribal college, where she wasn’t accepted at first. But she was determined to go, so they applied again and were accepted into the Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas.

“I was so excited, and I was pumped, because it was the first time I was learning about myself, my people,” she says.

Going from living on a reservation to a mainstream higher-ed institution can be a culture shock for Native students who don’t see themselves in the curriculum. Drye-Romero lived this alienation when she finished her bachelor’s and master’s at the University of Kansas.

“It’s not their culture, it’s a different culture,” she says. “It’s a different way of thinking. It’s having to reframe your mind because you’re learning something that’s not what you were raised with.”

To get Indigenous students to go to college, UNLV’s Tribal Education Initiative has started hosting the Native Youth Camps for high school students. “We’re working really hard at trying to create systems in place where our students feel like it’s a part of them,” Drye-Romero says.

The financial hardship of attending college and underfunded K-12 programs are among factors cited as causes. It’s also historical trauma, says Fredina Drye-Romero, the Nevada Department of Education’s education programs professional for Indian education. She’s an enrolled member of the Kaibab Band of Paiutes and grew up both on the Kaibab Indian and Moapa River Indian reservations.

“I think (of) the atrocities that our Native people have faced historically, with edu-

In 2021, Nevada became one of more than 10 states to enact the Native American fee waiver law. In the 2021-22 school year, the Nevada System of Higher Education helped 140 students, awarding them $457,449 to aid with college expenses. These grants are opportunities for students to study for career paths that have the potential to uplift tribes and their families.

Williams has her heart set on going to college and becoming an example for her two younger sisters. She’ll be the first in her immediate family to attend a four-year college.

“I want to make a good impression for my younger ones,” she says, “and I want to make all my older family and my parents proud, and give them a sense of support, too, once it gets to my time to help them.”

Cars for the Stranded

A predatory business upgrades its ethics on 9/11

BY Tonya Snyder

In the early 2000s I worked in the office of a large car dealership in Las Vegas. It was not a moral place.

One afternoon a woman stormed onto the lot, screaming, “I want my $50!” while one of the sales managers hid in his office because he had apparently forgotten to pay her for a blowjob. Eventually another manager slipped her the money to quiet things down, and the day went back to normal.

Another time the dealership brought in Miss Nude America — a real title, it seemed — to sign autographs next to trucks in the fleet department. A woman who

worked there was furious, but nobody in charge seemed bothered. Mostly the place ran on cigarettes and shortcuts.

My job was called stripping: Every deal that came through landed on my desk. I stripped the packet down to the essentials — loan information, title verification, payoff amounts for trade-ins — making sure everything lined up before the paperwork went forward.

When you do that long enough, you start to see the difference between what a deal is supposed to look like and what it actually is. Sometimes I would see a sales manager hold a signed document

against the window, press another sheet of paper over it, and trace the customer’s signature. By the time the deal packet reached my desk, it sometimes included warranties the buyer probably didn’t know they had purchased, usually at impressive prices.

It was that kind of place.

That’s why I remember what happened on September 11, 2001.

That morning I was driving down Interstate 15 toward work when the radio mentioned that a plane had hit one of the towers in New York. In my head it sounded like some kind of small aircraft accident. I didn’t picture a passenger jet. I didn’t picture anything enormous. It was just strange news playing in the background of a normal commute.

At work a few people were talking about it in the hallways, but the dealership moved at its usual pace. Phones rang. Salespeople wandered the lot. Paperwork stacked up. The news hadn’t settled into the room yet.

Sometime later I stepped outside the building. That’s when I saw the line of people.

At first, I thought it was some kind of promotion I hadn’t heard about. The dealership ran strange marketing ideas all the time. But those in line didn’t look excited. They stood quietly with luggage at their feet, shifting their weight in the late-morning sun.

Taxi drivers popped trunks and handed over suitcases before pulling back into traffic. Casino shuttle vans idled while passengers climbed out, the logos for hotels and buffets printed along the sides. The people would walk straight to the front of the lot and join the line.

They were a mix of business travelers and families: Men still wearing conference badges. Couples. Parents pulling suitcases. Kids standing close as their parents looked toward the sales desks.

They were there to buy cars. Flights had been grounded across the country, though I didn’t fully understand that yet. What I did understand was that Las Vegas was full of tourists who now had no way

to get home. So, they were buying whatever car they could find.

Inside the dealership the pace had changed. Managers moved faster. Sales desks filled up. Deals started stacking on my desk faster than I could process them.

At some point the head manager told us they were going to sell everything on the lot. He said they weren’t going to take advantage of anyone. They would sell the cars for only a little above what the dealership had paid so people could get home.

Whether that promise held exactly, I don’t know. My job wasn’t pricing. What I do remember is how thin the deal packets looked. No massive warranty pages. No stacks of add-ons. Just basic contracts moving quickly through the system. People were buying cars as fast as we could process them.

The managers asked if we would stay late to keep the paperwork moving. They offered dinner so we could keep working.

Someone rolled a television into the office, and a few of us gathered around while still trying to work. That’s when I finally saw the towers. The second plane. The smoke. Until that moment it had all been strange radio reports and half-heard conversations. Seeing the images made it real in a way I couldn’t ignore.

The room went quiet. A few salespeople stood in the doorway, watching the screen. One of the printers kept chattering beside me, feeding out contracts that still needed signatures. For a few minutes nobody reached for them.

Outside, the line of people waiting to buy cars kept growing. Taxi doors opened. Casino shuttles pulled away. Strangers stepped forward one by one, signing papers so they could start driving.

That day, the deals were simple. People weren’t bargaining. They just wanted a car and a direction.

I don’t know where most of them were headed. What I remember is the line. The people with suitcases at their feet. Pens moving across contracts. Cars leaving the lot all afternoon, carrying strangers home. ✦

ENERGY

Off the Roof

Some are pushing balcony solar for Nevada. Does it have a chance?

BY Janis Hashe

Fans listening to NPR’s “Science Friday” on April 17 might have been intrigued by the discussion of “balcony” or “plug-in” solar. Nevada condo, townhome, and apartment dwellers have mostly been shut out of the opportunity to take advantage of the approximately 300 sunny and partly sunny days the state enjoys to supplement their energy needs. But daylight could be emerging.

The basics: Solar plug-in panels connect to a standard power outlet. The systems, which currently cost from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, can have outputs ranging from 200 to 1,200 watts, or enough to power a refrigerator or small air conditioner.

These systems were approved for statewide use in Utah in early 2025, and more than a million of them are in use in Germany. As for Nevada, Benjamin Leffel, UNLV assistant professor of public policy and leadership, says, “Supposing NV Energy does not obstruct deployment. I would expect (approval) quickly, in the same way as other novel solar strategies”; i.e., Orlando’s “floatovoltaics,” or floating solar panels.

In response to Desert Companion ’s inquiry, the utility wrote: “NV Energy continually evaluates emerging technologies and customer-driven energy solutions, including options like balcony plug-in solar. While these systems are still evolving in the U.S. market, we are monitoring

developments to understand potential benefits, safety considerations, and impacts to the electric grid. Our focus remains on ensuring safe, reliable, and affordable energy for our customers.”

NV Energy filed its 2026 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada in early May. This is seen by solar advocates, such as nonprofit Solar United Neighbors (SUN), as a chance to push for investment in programs to help Nevadans cut energy use and power their homes.

Ben Delman, SUN’s editorial director, emphasized that the demand for energy is rapidly increasing, especially in light of proposed data centers. “The next step in Nevada is changing state law to allow the installation of balcony solar,” he says. In Utah, he notes, it was a Republican legislator, Raymond Ward, who pushed for HB 340’s passage — but even there, obstacles remain.

SUN’s website notes that installation generally doesn’t require a contractor. But this, and how to ensure the systems are safe, are under scrutiny. A May 2026 MIT Technology Review article noted that the national testing and certification lab UL Solutions had released a “testing protocol” to certify the safety of balcony solar systems.

The article listed three safety concerns: possibility of overloading a circuit; outdoor installation interfering with ground fault circuit interruption, which

prevents shock under wet conditions; and the possibility of the plug’s blades retaining residual electricity if disconnected. The protocol recommends the panels have an outlet designed for them, requiring an electrician to wire it.

Then there’s the return on investment. Recouping the costs of the system through electricity savings can take years. California nonprofit Bright Saver estimates that, based on current average costs and efficiency, an 800-watt balcony system could pay for itself in roughly seven years. That means most early adopters would likely be those concerned with climate change.

“Upfront costs, made worse by the Big ‘Beautiful’ Bill’s rescissions to energy-cost savings resources (incentives) nationwide … hurt red states just as much as blue states. Local utilities need to fill the gap with more financial incentives,” Leffel wrote in an email.

Kirsten Stasio, CEO of the nonprofit Nevada Clean Energy Fund, says that if the technology were approved for installation in Nevada, loans would likely be available through NCEF to help consumers cover upfront costs.

SUN and partner Bright Saver, which manufactures plug-in panels, will release a consumer guide this fall with updated information, Delman says. He advises interested Nevadans to keep an eye on his organization’s website for updates. ✦

DINING

Food is my love language, and in this edition of The Vegas Dish, I’m swooning with a happy belly. Many new things have happened in Southern Nevada dining since our last issue. Here, I offer my five best food finds — whatever your love language.

SARTIANO’S ITALIAN

STEAKHOUSE wynnlasvegas.com

If you lean toward physical touch as your love language, I submit Sartiano’s Italian Steakhouse. The menu encourages sharing, with several tableside preparations, including a decadent fettucine alfredo alla Romana with aged prosciutto and morel mushrooms. The patio overlooks the pristine golf course for a prime view of the Sphere. And the service dazzles for a delightful date night.

DOANBURI

doanburi.com

If you love receiving gifts, be dazzled by Doanburi’s Treasure Box, a sophisticated chirashi bowl with seasonal fish including bluefin toro, caviar, uni, and gold flakes. Chef Jae Doan provides a complete Japanese experience with house-made soy sauce (presented in an imported glass bird pourer) and desserts crafted with Japanese flour and sugar. This southwest spot is as special as it gets.

AROMA LATIN

AMERICAN COCINA aromacocinalv.com

Spend quality time at Aroma Latin American Cocina, which has moved to Spring Mountain Road. You’ll still find a brilliant

Peruvian ceviche marinated in leche de tigre (my favorite tangy, spicy sauce!) and satisfying mole beef ribs. But chef Steve Kestler says he’s experimenting even more in Chinatown, surrounded by restaurant innovation. Take note of a new dish, pepian negro, a traditional meat and veggie stew from his native Guatemala. Chef’s version includes a perfect duck confit atop a mouthwatering rich sauce.

MAROON saharalasvegas.com

I have so many words of affirmation for chef Kwame Onwuachi’s Maroon, the city’s first upscale Caribbean steakhouse and our first Strip restaurant owned and helmed by a Black chef. Every dish pops — from the spicy chilies to the intricate layering of island flavors and rum-aged steaks. Try anything from the live-fire jerk pit. I can’t stop dreaming of the jerk chicken and the rack of lamb, truly exceptional smoky delights.

DIAMOND SPUR

PROVISIONS & MEATS dspmeats.com

In a true act of service to the local community, OG hospitality bosses chef Marc Marrone and Todd Lunger are taking the guesswork out of purchasing proteins by eliminating the meat middlemen. At Diamond Spur’s butcher shop and deli, you can buy beef, pork, and chicken sourced from the company’s ranches in Arizona, Missouri, and South Dakota. If you want immediate sustenance, the new shop on South Fort Apache also sells an in-house ground burger, steak frites with beef tallow fries, and a scrumptious chicken parm sando. ✦

A Hunger for History

Native food growing, cooking, and eating carry important stories that help preserve traditions

BY Jimmy Romo-Buenrostro

When I cut into a glistening steak — right out of the oven, so tender it practically melts when I bite into it — I have the warm feeling of sitting at a childhood dinner table enjoying grandma’s cooking. The same is true for a Chipotle burrito, evocative of the staples my parents served me growing up. All those meals tell the story of who I am, what my family has been through.

For Leland Swain, an enrolled member of the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians, those stories are told through stews, karate bread, and beans — “a lot of beans,” he says.

Swain was born in 1948 and raised on the Moapa River Indian Reservation. He was part of the new generation on the reservation, he says, a generation which began six years after his tribe gained federal recognition, in 1942. The tribe lived on land that the U.S. government gave to the Moapa Paiutes in the early 1870s, then reduced to only 1,000 acres by 1875.

Before that, the Southern Paiute had lived along the Muddy River and farmed traditional foods like maize, beans, and squash in the arid desert, where summer temperatures top 100 degrees. Earlier generations hunted and gathered to eat.

It was a tough life, Swain says. “We didn’t have to do that. We hunted and gathered our pine nuts.”

His generation saw the introduction of the grocery store. Today, most of the dishes cooked in Native com-

munities are made with ingredients from those stores.

LISTEN to an audio version of this story at KNPR.org.

But that doesn’t mean traditional practices stopped. Moapa Paiutes still hunt and gather, just not out of necessity. And in the generational overlap between Swain and his grandmother, Topsy Chappo Swain, there are dishes he grew up eating and still makes today.

Gathering

When Swain was growing up, on the reservation, there were no refrigerators. People cooked meals fresh every time they wanted to eat. This made beans a practical dish.

“Out at home on any given weekend, you go through our valley out there, and that’s all you can whiff … (the) smell of beans in the pot,” Swain says.

The beans he remembers were cooked with onions and garlic, and often accompanied by Native breads. One of those breads, Swain says, is what young Southern Paiutes call “karate bread.” Roughly 10 inches in diameter and two inches thick, it was baked in the hot ashes of a fire or in the oven.

“Grandma used to cook it especially when we went to the mountains to pick our pine nuts or whatever and

go deer hunting,” he says. “She’d put it under the coals on a rock so it wouldn’t get all dirty … She’d pull (the bread) out, pull it out of … the hot coals, and turn it on her hand and give it a chop in the middle and fold it over.”

Picking pine nuts was one of Swain’s favorite gathering activities. He also enjoyed bringing in Mesquite beans, which can be ground into flour for the bread, giving it a cinnamon and roasted hazelnut characteristic. Mesquite trees also provide pods and flowers for tea. Creosote bush can be used to make tea, too, and, although not native to the land, drought-tolerant goji berry bushes can be found near the Moapa River Indian Reservation, left by the Chinese immigrants who built the railroad there.

Hunting

When fall began, it was time to eat stews. Although Swain’s family had access to a grocery store once or twice a month, storing raw meat wasn’t possible. This meant hunting cottontails and jackrabbits if they wanted meat.

Rabbit meat made for a good stew, Swain remembers. With a hardy broth, the stew also included beans, potatoes, carrots, onions, and greens.

Between September and October, he says, it was time to hunt deer — and time for deer stew. With the lack of refrigerators, the red meat would be removed from the carcass and dried on racks to make jerky and stored for the summer.

“We were always sneaking and getting the jerky as kids,” Swain says.

One of his favorite dishes was pine nut soup — ground pine nuts cooked in water.

“We lived a simple life back then,” he says.

Beyond being part of tradition, food connects communities. Swain still goes to luncheons on the Moapa River Indian Reservation for the seniors’ monthly birthday celebrations. At these potluck-style feasts, there are often a stew, beans, and Native bread … foods that take him back to his grandmother’s cooking. ✦

For those moments seeking solace or focus, Classical 89.7 KCNV is there.

Any hour of the day, tune in for the true classics, new, young musicians, eclectic mixes and much more.

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The Scoop Abides

Vegas has always loved ice cream. Now there’s a place to learn the chill treat’s history

BY Janis Hashe

When Las Vegas’ Museum of Ice Cream had its grand opening July 3 at Area15, the nearly 30,000-squarefoot spot welcomed visitors to such themed attractions as the Golden Scoop Buffet, the self-proclaimed world’s largest all-youcan-eat ice cream service; the Cone-sino, a family-friendly entertainment floor; and the Little Pink Chapel, a wedding venue designed like a tiered wedding cake “with ordained ministers on staff.” (Say “I do” and then slurp?) The museum is the largest in the company’s portfolio, surpassing its New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and Singapore locations.

Manish Vora, cofounder and CEO, says, “We didn’t come to Las Vegas to do what we’ve done before. We came to build the wildest, most immersive, most interactive experience we have ever created. … This is not Museum of Ice Cream 2.0. This is Museum of Ice Cream, only in Las Vegas.”

The city has a long, sweet history with the frozen treat, as Sarah Lohman, food historian, author

of the upcoming book Ice Cream Land , and Las Vegas resident points out. She sends a link to a 1905 photo showing early McWilliams townsite residents standing in front of the First State Bank of Las Vegas, with a just-visible sign in the background reading “ice cream.”

“There was an icehouse here by 1905, and Anderson Dairy was established in 1907,” Lohman says. Anderson has been making its popular ice creams, including Bananas Foster and Butter Pecan, since “sometime in the 1940s,” according to a company spokesperson.

Ice cream, of course, has a much older global history, Lohman says. A first iced dessert originated in ancient Persia (now Iran). By the time of the Tang Dynasty (about 618-907), Chinese royalty were enjoying chilled iced desserts, and, as the centuries passed, the Italians “took the process a bit further,” she says, creating sorbetto and gelato.

The treat made its way to the American colonies via England. “The founding fathers were big fans,” Lohman says. Philadelphia emerged as an early center; there, it was handcrafted by free African American culinary professionals, many of them women. Philly is also credited with popularizing eggless ice cream. “Philadelphia style was famous for being as rich as custard without eggs,” she says. Coney Island, on the other hand, gets the credit for inventing frozen custard, which differs from ice cream primarily because of eggs and air.

And here the story circles back to Las Vegas and one of its frozen dessert icons: Luv-It Frozen Custard. Founded in 1973, the tiny storefront near Oakey and Las Vegas boulevards sits in an unprepossessing lot, which, on a recent visit, also housed a 1-800-GOT-JUNK truck and a somewhat suspicious-looking fast cash/ convenience store.

But the locale hasn’t deterred four generations of locals from pounding a path to its walk-up windows. “I’ve been coming here for decades,” said one gentleman in line. And for good reason: Luv-It’s products are celebrated on best-of food lists both in Las Vegas and elsewhere. The Western Sundae, featuring custard, hot fudge, hot caramel, and pecans, remains the bestseller, but not to be outdone is the Luv-It Special, custard topped with strawberries and pecans.

Then there are the newcomers. Local artisan maker Sorry, Not Sorry Creamery opened its first location in March 2022, and now has five in Nevada. The company attributes its popularity to using “the highest legal limit of butterfat,” and its unique flavors, including Coffee and Doughnuts 2.0 and Honey Lavender. (Lohman’s favorite is Ube Honeycomb, which blends crunchy honeycomb candy pieces into a base made with the Filipino yam ube.) And, Vegas being Vegas, the Craft Creamery Speakeasy in the Arts District is the place to sample spiked ice cream or milkshakes.

So there’s no need to scream — Las Vegas has plenty of ice cream for everyone. ✦

NIGHTLIFE

All the Buzz

Espresso martinis are having a moment. Here’s where to have one

BY Lissa Townsend Rodgers

If the 2000s were the Cosmopolitan, and the 2010s were the Moscow Mule, then the 2020s are the decade of the Espresso Martini. Combining the buzzes of alcohol and caffeine, the drink’s popularity has skyrocketed over the past several years.

“In some form, the pairing of coffee and spirits dates back more than a century,” says Drew D’Errico, director of wine and spirits at Resorts World. “At their core, espresso martinis bring together two universally loved elements: exceptional coffee and quality spirits.”

The classic espresso martini combines vodka and espresso with liqueur, but the idea lends itself to infinite variations. The base could be rum, mezcal, tequila, or bourbon; the liqueur, flavored with coffee, espresso, vanilla, caramel, or amaretto.

Jonah Gibbs, beverage director for Bar Boheme and Petite Boheme, notes that coffee has always been a solid cocktail component. “Stirred drinks like old fashioned and Manhattan variations take to coffee really well.” So, mix it up!

BEST ESPRESSO MARTINIS

❱❱❱ Palate makes a classic version, with house-made coffee-infused vodka and espresso.

❱❱❱ At Bourbon Steak by Michael Mina, Pátron Reposado is echoed in XO Cafe Coffee Liqueur and spiked with mole bitters and pistachio.

❱❱❱ The Capital Grille’s variation gets a double dose of the good stuff with both espresso and espresso liqueur added to vodka.

❱❱❱ Vegas Vickie’s offers two takes: traditional with vodka, Kahlua, and espresso; and “grandissimo,” with vanilla-infused tequila, cold brew liqueur, and espresso spiked with saffron and garnished with gold leaf.

❱❱❱ Nocturno’s most interesting variation eschews vodka for mezcal and a hint of apricot.

BEST ESPRESSO MARTINI ALTERNATIVES

❱❱❱ Jive Turkey’s Frozen Irish Coffee, a New Orleans standard, is like a vodka-zazzed Frappucino that goes down dangerously easy.

❱❱❱ The Gitchie Gitchie at Petite Boheme shakes up vodka with cognac-whiskey-derived Villion liqueur, China China liqueur, chocolate and coffee.

❱❱❱ The Carajillo is a simple, sophisticated cocktail made from espresso and Licor 43, a Spanish vanilla-forward herbal liqueur. ¡Viva! serves theirs with an espresso-spiked ice sphere that smooths the flavor as it melts.

❱❱❱ Bizarre Bar’s Limoncello Espresso combines two of Italy’s archetypical flavors to create a unique cocktail.

❱❱❱ Las Vegas Brewing Company offers the 1677 Stout and Easy Briessy Porter. The former has flavors of coffee and cocoa, while the latter is a deeper espresso-dark chocolate vibe.

Watering the Roots of Hope

Can the return of a legendary restaurant — and the promise of a new one to come — keep the Historic Commercial Center alive?

BY Rafaela Gandolfo Bustamante

Less than a mile from the bustle of the Strip stands the Historic Commercial Center District. Yet despite the steady stream of passing cars, and the adjective “historic” preceding the mall’s name, its roughly 18-acre parking lot is usually nearly empty.

Of course, it wasn’t always this way.

“It was just a lively community every weekend, for sure,” says Penny Chutima, manager of one of the 150 businesses listed on the Commercial Center’s website. “Like, you had someone that was having their quinceañera, or somebody was having a debut, or Korean karaoke here and there.”

The mall opened in 1963 and almost immediately became a landmark of commerce and culture. It’s where Elvis Presley shopped, Rat Pack members dined, the Doors and Bob Marley performed, and mobsters schemed.

Penny Chutima’s mother, Saipin Chutima, opened Lotus of Siam in the Commercial Center in 1999.

Its Northern Thai cuisine has since received recognition from American Chef Anthony Bourdain and Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Jonathan Gold, drawing steady customers to the strip mall.

Despite that success, Chutima says, the center has seen better days, and Lotus of Siam’s place within it was a “hole in the wall, and around it (was) kind of scary.” Since the district’s heyday in the ’70s, multimillion-dollar developments across the valley competed to modernize, crime rates rose, and its livelihood faded.

Still, that hasn’t dashed dreams of reversing the district’s downhill trajectory. Public promises of revitalization have kept some people hoping that the historical roots weaving through the Commercial Center can be watered again.

In 2003, Clark County designated the Commercial Center District as its first redevelopment area, and, in 2024, bought the property’s historic New Orleans Square. Last

year, the county’s redevelopment agency paid a consulting firm to create plans for a so-called “Commercial Center 2.0,” which included new arts and dining venues, festivals, and residential development.

None of that has come to fruition, and debate over expensive redevelopment or cheaper demolition continues. However, some say those revitalization efforts could lead to the loss of the area’s culture and community. That includes Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom, who decries a Las Vegas mantra.

“Vegas has always been, ‘Let’s look forward. If it’s 10 years old, it’s old. We’re going to tear it down and build something new,’” Segerblom says.

In a city that thrives on the next best thing, how do you revitalize what once was, while preserving the nostalgia, culture, and community that come with it? The process is one Segerblom can only describe as “organic.”

diverse communities can continue to prosper in the heart of the city. That centrality is what sold Derek Stonebarger on the area. Stonebarger already owns the popular Rebar in the Arts District. He’s now planning to open Arty’s Steakhouse in the Commercial Center and says it will double as an art gallery for local vendors. He sees the spot’s potential as a major hub.

“Sahara and Las Vegas Boulevard is pretty much the dead center of our town. ... There’s just so much opportunity based on our location,” Stonebarger says.

The intersection sees roughly 70,000 cars daily, according to the City of Las Vegas. In addition, a new $373 million bus line will run along nearby Maryland Parkway starting in August.

Stonebarger’s hope is clear. After pouring what he says is “more than his life savings” into the project, he wants the place to be “community-based,” where visitors can thrive in relics of bygone eras. LISTEN to an audio version of this story on KNPR.org.

He says the area is perfectly suited as a central location — somewhere

“It’s really a melting pot for our city, and that’s going to continue,” he says. “And it’s really hopefully going to be based all around art, culture, and community.”

But while businesses may recognize the promise of the Commercial Center, there are also pitfalls: Secu-

rity was among the most concerning. Just five years ago, Segerblom considered the area as one of the most dangerous in Las Vegas. Clark County has since worked with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to increase security. “Lots of things come when people feel secure,” he says.

That sense of safety, combined with new investment, has begun to shift perceptions of the area’s future for him and for Stonebarger.

Lotus of Siam has also recently reopened its location in the Commercial Center after pandemic-related staffing shortages forced its closure. Penny Chutima would like to see its homecoming bring more traffic and culture to the plaza.

“I feel like Commercial Center always has that special place. I’m hoping, knock on wood, that, you know, people will see the true beauty of what it is,” Chutima says. “(It’s) kind of like a lotus flower, right? It grows in mud. And so, in order for it to grow and bloom beautifully, it has to go through the entire process.”

That process, the one that truly allows Commercial Center to thrive again, remains unclear. But for those still invested in its future, the hope is that its cultural, creative, and community benefits will help its history endure. ✦

TASTE LOCAL. EXPLORE NATURE. DISCOVER THE UNKNOWN.

This is a different side of Nevada, far from the casinos, fancy suites and ritzy nightlife. Instead, here you can dig into the comforting tastes of a small-town diner. Explore the region’s scenic hiking paths, peaceful campgrounds, and winding off-road trails. History comes alive in forgotten ghost towns that hold an air of mystery and whispers of the past. Out here, there are even tales of UFO sightings and other unexplained oddities. It’s a place where good food, outdoor adventure, and a touch of the supernatural come together. Come out and explore, there’s a story in every town, and an adventure around every bend.

CULTURE

August is often denigrated as the Sunday of months. I think that’s actually a denigration of Sundays, which I very much appreciate unless I blow a Friday deadline (ahem). Adults slag off August because it lacks holidays and temperate weather; kids harumph their return to school; and some Strip properties can’t give their rooms away — although maybe that’s because the resort and parking fees still mean spending a C-note a day. Staycation?! More like vexation!

For cultural enthusiasts, too, the August events calendar resembles a population density map of Nevada: largely barren, save for a few clusters of life. Much of that life can be found in several free art galleries. For instance: Jamie Zepeda’s renderings of the people, places, and cultures of the American Southwest and Mexico — called La Salida del Sol — hold court at the East Las Vegas Library (August 20-October 20, times vary, thelibrarydistrict.org). If you’re not familiar with Zepeda, it’s her charming vaquera that’s painted on the Blue Diamond/Dean Martin Zap! box. Also, the West Las Vegas Library is hosting a one-man show of sorts in artist/rapper/educator Perry Porter’s The Renaissance Man (through September 22, times vary, thelibrarydistrict.org), featuring his collection of watercolor and acrylic paintings that favor the positive, trauma-free version of Black life and, per the library, “the rhythm of lived experience.”

Can your calendar handle this much good stuff?

BY Mike Prevatt

For those who want to squeeze in one more jaunt with Junior before school resumes — or if you just need something in your back pocket for the weekends — the Las Vegas Science & Natural History Museum is enticing families with big, hairy spiders — crafted ones, fossilized ones, live ones — in its big Art & Science of Arachnids exhibit (thru August 23, 9a-4p daily, $7-$14, lvnhm.org). Not to be outdone, the

Springs Preserve is hosting nearly 20 live dinosaurs in Dino Safari: A Walk-Thru Adventure , where giant animatronic reptiles move and chew, but don’t disembowel you like they did ol’ Dennis Nedry (thru October 5, 9a-4p Thursday-Monday, $5-$19, springspreserve.org). Or you can hold out until October for the real family bait of the season, the Las Vegas Book Festival (October 17, 10a-5p, free, Fifth Street School, lasvegasbookfestival.com). At press time, the participants hadn’t been announced yet, but here’s hoping the programming staff dedicates one story hour to the cautionary tales of the 19th-century German children’s storybook, Der Struwwelpeter. It’s a collection for our times.

Speaking of books, there’s a fourweek spree of noteworthy local authors incoming — all promoting their new major releases, and all brought to you by the Writer’s Block bookstore, gratis. Nicholas Russell gets things going — at the Beverly Theater — to delve into his first book, the horror novel Observer ( September 18, 6p, thewritersblock.org).

One week later, Desert Companion contributor Krista Diamond sits down to get into her Las Vegas/Los Angeles-straddling debut novel, Close Relationships With Strangers (September 25, 7p, The Writer’s Block). Erin Singer is next up to talk about her own debut title, the comedic, Vegas-set novel Dangerland! (October 2, 7p, The Writer’s Block), and one week later, she interviews former Pahrump resident and critic darling Claire Vaye Watkins to disucss the latter’s third novel, Yellow Pine, another story set in Watkins’ beloved Mojave Desert (October 9, 7p, The Writer’s Block). Fans of Japanese animation may have already bagged their tickets to the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s program of composer Joe Hisaishi’s scores for Studio Ghibli. But everyone else should consider watching the Phil — led by new music director/ conductor Rei Hotoda — tackle the complex but heartful musical identities of Ponyo, Totoro, and Howl ( September 12, 7:30p, September 13, 2p, $46-$162, The Smith Center, lvphil.org ). For another perfor -

mance, set to be both rooted in and leaping from tradition, look no further than Alison Krauss & Union Station , who headline the cozy Encore Theater for a rare Strip airing of live bluegrass and Americana (September 29, 8p, $90+, wynnlasvegas.com).

UNLV’s Nevada Conservatory Theatre leads the late-summer return of theater with Big Love (September 24-October 4, times and venues vary, $19-$35, unlv.edu/nct/ season-info), a boisterous, violent, and more-than-a-little relevant take on Aeschylus’s The Suppliants that whisks gender politics, the patriarchy, and relationship woes into its dramaturgic batter.

With such a bloody work as Big Love, Halloween would be the obvious transition point. Those who enjoy running the gauntlet-like haunts will have the usual gory attractions splattered, I mean, scattered all over the valley. Meanwhile, the more cardiovascularly sensitive can enjoy HallOVeen, the gentle but spirited fair at Opportunity Village’s Magical Forest (October 2-31, times vary, price TBD, opportunityvillage. org). Swap the carny jump scares for free candy and a spiked cider — after all, 2026 has been enough of a horror show. ✦

FREE TO BE

Summer

Art Crawl

Don’t let the heat stop you from enjoying the library district’s diverse gallery offerings

BY Melissa Gill

Art fosters connections, especially in established community hubs — like a neighborhood library. Galleries have long been among the free cultural and educational services offered by the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. About 80 diverse exhibitions rotate annually through its 12 branches, from Centennial Hills to East Las Vegas. As summer fades into fall, instead of lying low at home waiting for the heat to wane, try your nearest library. Here are four to get you started.

VISTAS: BEAUTY OF THE DESERT

West Charleston Library, through September 1

Photographer Melvin Morales’ sweeping landscapes transport viewers to terrains he’s immortalized with his camera, notably in Red Rock Canyon and Lake Tahoe, spotlighting Nevada’s status as among the most mountainous states in the country. “The goal is to shift how people see Nevada, making these places feel more immediate and within reach, and encouraging them to experience the landscape for themselves,” Morales says.

A NEW DAY, A NEW DAWN

Whitney Library, through September 15

This exhibit by the Las Vegas Artists’ Guild centers on renewal and transformation. It features an array of mediums, such as watercolor, mixed media, and Chinese brush painting. “Unlike past shows that may focus primarily on technique or theme,” LVAG President Sonya Edwards says, “this collection is deeply narrative-driven, inviting viewers into moments of personal and collective rebirth.”

THE RENAISSANCE MAN

West Las Vegas Library, through September 22

Multidisciplinary artist Perry Porter expresses themes of Black identity, resilience, and cultural memory through various forms of media, including elements of rap music and poetry. Porter’s thoughtfully curated collection is slated to include select pieces from his “Blk Boy Joy” album covers, “Blk Wins” nonprofit, and “Sunflower” series. “I want (people) to see themselves, their mothers, aunties, sisters, and daughters (in my art),” Porter says.

LA SALIDA DEL SOL

East Las Vegas Library, August 20-October 20

Jamie Zepeda draws inspiration from Southwest culture — and her Michoacán-Mexican roots, including traditions like Danza de los Viejitos, a dance that directly originates from her family’s ancestry. Creating La Salida del Sol, she says, taught her the importance of sharing her experiences in her work. “I learned to trust the subjects I’m drawn to,” Zepeda says, “and that they can resonate beyond my perspective.” ✦

To see the district’s full gallery schedule, visit thelibrarydistrict.org

Rodolfo Fernandez

Musical talent, connection to his audience, and legendary hair. Remembering the Nevada Chamber Symphony director

BY Scott Dickensheets

If you had encountered Rodolfo Fernandez during his 1980s and ’90s heyday in Las Vegas, you would not have been surprised to learn he was a conductor. He looked the part: “He had the most magnificent head of hair. Legendary,” says French horn player Beth Lano. “With that hair and the mustache, he cut quite the figure in his concert attire.” His was a face destined to be framed by arms moving in fluid, precise musical notation.

In addition to being a talented cellist himself, Fernandez, who died in April, for decades conducted the Nevada Chamber Symphony — previously the Serenata Chamber Orchestra — which essentially served as the house ensemble of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District before branching out as a nonprofit. He was 94, a leading figure from a heady time in Las Vegas culture, when the valley was building stunning new libraries, KNPR was recently underway, the city had an arts council, and more.

Fernandez was, by all accounts — and in contrast to the popular stereotype of overbearing orchestra leaders in movies like Tár — distinctly nontyrannical. “He never raised his voice,” says Peggy Trasatti, a former library district programming official who first brought Fernandez and Serenata under the library’s rubric, then eventually became his life partner. Rather, she says, he led with respect. “He was a very kind person, with strong, musical convictions,” says oboist Stephen Caplan, who performed for Fernandez several times.

“Rodolfo was a brilliant musician,” Lano says. “He believed deeply in communication through music, and he was beloved by the musicians.” As Fernandez told an interviewer in 1989, “You cannot be above the music and the musicians. If you do not have communion, you cannot produce beautiful music.”

For him, the beautiful music started at age 4, in his native Chile, when he heard a recording of a work by Schubert that featured the distinctive warm thrum of a cello. He was captivated, though he didn’t begin learning to play one until college. He emigrated to the United States in 1961, taught college music around the South, performed for a couple of years with the Swiss Chamber Orchestra, and eventually arrived in Las Vegas to take advantage of the musical opportunities on the Strip. Other opportunities quickly presented themselves.

The Serenata Chamber Orchestra was born in 1985 when Trasatti hired him to put together an ensemble to perform at a special library function — and an enthusiastic local audience turned out for it. (Some of the orchestra’s early concerts were broadcast on Nevada Public Radio.)

As an orchestra director, Fernandez was no mere crowd-pleaser who lards shows with easy-button selections by Bach or Beethoven. He once spent seven months ferreting out a deep cut by composer Rodrigo Grigo that he’d seen mentioned in a book, finally locating a source in the old Yugoslavia who could provide it. He leaves behind an extensive musical library of such finds, many of which he arranged not only for his orchestras but also for the cello trio he led. (That library is going to UNLV.)

“He was even willing to premiere an obscure, contemporary oboe concerto, with me as soloist,” Caplan says.

But that didn’t break his connection to audiences. Caplan adds, “What (Fernandez) created at the Las Vegas Library District was pretty miraculous at the time: a regular concert series of classical music with enthusiastic audiences.” ✦

TV’s ‘Lucky’ Is the Desert Rat It Derides

In the new Apple TV series “Lucky,” the title character’s latest troubles begin with a situation straight out of The Hangover: On the roof of Caesars Palace, Lucky Armstrong (Anya Taylor-Joy) celebrates with her husband, Cary (Drew Starkey), after stealing millions from some very dangerous people. Lucky and Cary raise a champagne toast to their future, but Lucky doesn’t realize that her drink has been drugged. When she wakes up the next day, groggy and disoriented, both Cary and the money are gone, and she has to piece together what happened, all while being chased by both the FBI and the people she stole from.

That journey soon takes her away from Las Vegas, although “Lucky” sticks around the desert Southwest for a while, and the show becomes less distinctive when the setting later shifts to anonymous office buildings and hotel rooms. “I don’t know why anyone would choose to live in the desert,” says Priscilla (Annette Bening), the crime boss who’s pursuing Lucky to retrieve the stolen money for her own boss, an even more powerful kingpin. But this unique, arid locale is the right place for a lifelong grifter like Lucky, who fits in perfectly with the gamblers and outsiders, like the isolated, desert-dwelling family who briefly take her in.

Lucky cons that family by pretending to be the victim of domestic abuse, a tactic she uses multiple times on unsuspecting strangers. Taylor-Joy brings determination and empathy to her portrayal of Lucky, and she has a strong father-daughter dynamic with Timothy Olyphant as Lucky’s con-artist dad. Still, there’s not much below the surface of this solid but familiar crime drama, which begins strikingly in the glittering lights of Las Vegas before building to a generic final showdown. Maybe Lucky can head back where she belongs in the second season. —Josh Bell

ARTS EDUCATION

It Came From Good Teachers

A team of UNLV grads and filmmakers return to the university for a professional-student collaboration

BY Josh Bell

For Ryan and Cody LeBoeuf and Rachel Alterman, working with UNLV’s Filmmaker Vision Lab is a proud full-circle moment. All three graduated from UNLV’s film school (now known as the school of cinematic arts), and returning to their alma mater as mentors and collaborators is a sign of how far they’ve come as filmmakers. “UNLV for me was the place where I found my film family,

and it reinforced me wanting to be a filmmaker,” Alterman says.

The LeBoeuf brothers are veterans of the local film scene, as writers and directors of numerous short films, as well as two previous features. While still students at UNLV in 2013, they received the Johnny Brenden Filmmakers Award, giving them $25,000 toward the production of their first feature, Rabbit Days (later retitled The Beast for its streaming release). Their

second feature, horror anthology The Haunted History Tour, is currently seeking distribution, but they’re already looking ahead to the next project.

That’s where Alterman comes in. She’s now the director of development at Los Angeles-based Alcon Entertainment, whose recent productions include The Garfield Movie and Practical Magic 2 . When she caught a screening of The Haunted History Tour , she knew that she had to team up with the LeBoeufs as a

 BEAST MODE

The LeBoeuf brothers’ first feature film, Rabbit Days (later retitled The Beast for its streaming release)

Years later, they all get the chance to pass that forward to a new generation of film students. “For us to be able to come back and do a version of that when it’s where the two of us met, and now we’re building this thing together, is really meaningful for us,” Alterman says.

Ryan describes It Came From the Swamp as “obviously horror, but it has undertones of dark comedy, as well.” The story takes place in a small town in the LeBoeufs’ native Louisiana, which they plan to

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The term “homeschooling” has carried heavy connotations over the years: conservative Christian isolationism, awkwardly socialized kids, insufficient academic education. In the minds of secular parents 30 years ago, the idea of homeschooling was, to say the least, questionable. Fast-forward to the 2020 pandemic, a time when brick-and-mortar schools closed, parents worked from home, and kids hopped online for their assignments. Add to that the nation’s political turn toward bullying, scores of school shootings, reports of abuse and assault by teachers or other students, and some consistently unimpressive public-school test scores. Now, instead of odd and insufficient, homeschooling seems to many like a viable way to care for, and educate, kids of all ages. For some it might even be an answer to the massive social, employment, and technological shifts occurring in this era. Who says kids need to be in rows of classroom desks six to eight hours a day every weekday?

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

… at least for the growing number of parents who are opting out of public schools and teaching their kids themselves

By Stacy J. Willis

The percentage of homeschoolers spiked nationwide, including Nevada, during the pandemic and is still growing from pre-pandemic levels. Plenty of parents did not send their kids back to school after Covid. Some decided not to return to their own jobs if they couldn’t work from home to help teach their kids. Others looked for

alternatives to what they perceived as troubled traditional schools in the growing list of other options: private schools, charter schools, online schools, or some combination.

“I think this is the new normal,” says Angela Watson, senior research fellow at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education

Policy. “Homeschooling is an off-ramp for the people for whom public school isn’t working. They can escape and do something else.”

Public school enrollment numbers are down in Nevada for a variety of reasons (see p. 17) — and options that better fit people’s lives, and concerns, clearly factor into that decline.

Watson notes that, nationwide, K-12 education is becoming a “build your own adventure” scenario, where some kids go to private school three days a week and do online learning the other two; or attend a public charter school online; or choose homeschooling but join school groups for electives or field trips. Some exit public school for a few years and return. Others never attend public schools at all.

“The (availability of) technology is a huge factor, and the newer generation of parents is more accepting of that. The younger generation of parents is not afraid to give it a try. They’re not feeling stigmatized like they were before,” Watson says. “I mean, the Kardashians homeschool their kids — it’s part of the fabric of normal education in the United States.”

But sunny narratives about the rise of homeschooling are complicated by many social media posts, sites, and Reddit threads devoted to formerly homeschooled students who say the process left them feeling isolated and unprepared. Example: A June post on Reddit from someone who says she’s a 17-year-old female forced into homeschooling “due to my parents being scared of the ‘outside’ world and what might happen to me” describes a tangle of emotional, mental-health, and academic issues: “I think what hurts me the most is how I went from a straight A+ student to being 3 years behind …” Such sentiments are not uncommon in these forums.

In many cases, traditional public schools serve as a social services hub that homeschooled kids may miss, says Rebecca Dirks Garcia, president of the Clark County Parent Teacher Association and the admin of the CCSD Parents Facebook page. “So many kids get needed social services whether it’s healthcare, mental healthcare, food insecurity,” she says, “and it’s often identified first at the local school level.”

U.S. Census information indicates Nevada homeschooling increased from around 2.5 percent in the spring of 2020 to 13.1 percent by the fall of that year, slightly higher than the national average of 11.1 percent during that period.

“We have evidence that religion is not the primary driving factor — safety is.”

—Angela Watson, senior research fellow at Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy

Those numbers dipped after the pandemic but are again on an upward trajectory. The Nevada Homeschool Association estimates that, statewide, there are about 30,000 homeschooled kids, whereas 10 years ago it was closer to 10,000. More broadly, the National Center for Education Statistics estimates the number of homeschoolers at around 3.4 million, or 6 percent of school-aged kids, putting Nevada on par with the national trend.

As homeschooling increases, public school test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known for years as the Congressionally mandated “America’s Report Card,” have declined to levels not seen since the 1970s, Watson says. The learning gaps between the highest scorers and lowest is increasing — a sign that needs aren’t being met.

According to a 2019 U.S. Department of Education report, nearly 73 percent of homeschool families reported “dissatisfaction with academic instruction” as a driving reason for choosing to withdraw. Even more, just under 75 percent of families cited a “desire to provide moral instruction” as motivating their decision to homeschool. But the number one reason for choosing homeschooling, at over 80 percent, was “a concern about the environment” in public schools.

“We have evidence that religion is not the primary driving factor — safety is,” Watson says. “Bullying is a major fear for parents opting out of public schools. … It’s not that they’re leaving (necessarily) because their child was bullied, but the fear of bullying, along with fears of school shootings.”

LeAndra Surprenant, a homeschool mother-teacher and founder of the Nevada Homeschool Association, says there is still a drive for parents to keep their kids protected on a number of levels — not only

from bullying and school shootings, but also from an increasing number of issues introduced by social media. At home, parents have more control over what a child may see online.

“What level of trauma happens at the public schools? What do kids learn when the parents aren’t watching?” Suprenant asks. “They’re seeing children introduced to porn through other kids’ phones. How do we keep them away from it without leaving them unprepared?”

“(As parents,) we have to tell them who they are, what the world should look like, tell them what’s wrong about the world based on our own beliefs — you are instilling your values,” she says. “If you don’t do it, the world will instill it. As a parent, you have to decide your values for your family. You can still do that if your child goes to public school, but it’s much harder to undo damage that you can’t see.”

Outside of protecting kids from such concerns, parents also have the desire to design an education specific to each child’s needs — another echo of popular tech-driven culture — a sort of personal algorithm of instruction.

“I think that for all of history there are people who wanted out (of public schools). Or wanted something better and bought it,” Suprenant says. “Wealthy people send their children to private schools. The middle class pick their house by the school district it’s in.”

But, she adds, “The people who are left couldn’t buy that choice for one reason or another, and they’re stuck in these schools. But the barriers are being removed and they’re able to get unstuck.”

Not so fast, Dirks Garcia says. She was homeschooled herself in other states, but is now an advocate for public schooling, in particular magnet and charter schools.

“I don’t live in an affluent area,” she says. “But my kids will graduate from four different magnet schools, award-winning schools, so this narrative of ‘all public schools in Nevada have awful public education’ is wrong.” Dirks Garcia says the truth is more nuanced and depends on many factors, including individual schools — some are testing better than others. But, she adds, “There are not enough (magnet and charter schools).”

ON A TYPICAL day of homeschooling at Arieyanna Carson’s house, she and her 10-year-old daughter were searching their home for a frog named Todashi. He had

gotten out of the tank, and they were a bit frantic — especially because their other pet is a German Shepherd whose taste for amphibians was unknown.

“My daughter is obsessed with animals, and when we were studying science, she did a deep dive on which (amphibians) make good pets. The next thing you know we’re getting a Samurai Blue Pacman Frog,” says Carson, who leads the Bluebird Summit homeschooling co-op in Las Vegas.

Carson’s homeschooling cooperative is a multicultural, secular group of about 50 kids and their parents, who have chosen to homeschool but were not looking for a homogenous faith-based group.

“We have had Christians and Hindus and same-sex couples and neurodivergent kids and all kinds of people who come to us because we are multicultural and diverse,” says Carson, whose mom is from Samoa, dad is from the Philippines, and husband is from Mexico. She grew up in Las Vegas as the youngest of nine kids in a three-bedroom household and graduated from Rancho High School.

“I’m a big mixture of things, and it’s very important to me for my kids to see people of all colors and backgrounds and life circumstances,” she says.

Carson had her first child a few years before the pandemic, so when her daughter reached school age, she decided to keep her home and begin homeschooling.

“I personally think we need to expose our kids to all kinds of people, because I think when they get older they’re in for a rude awakening if they aren’t familiar with people who don’t look like them and don’t have the same beliefs as them,” she says.

This echoes a point Dirks Garcia makes: “I have always viewed education as, how are we preparing kids for life,” she says. “And one of the things unique to the public-school experience is learning how to navigate with different people and ideas and engage constructively.”

Public school exposes kids to real-world situations they’ll eventually have to deal with: navigating systems, patiently waiting for other kids’ and teachers’ needs, learning to read a room. “If you’re trying to limit your kid’s exposure to a variety of things, yes, you have a lot more control if your kid is not integrated into a larger school community,” Dirks Garcia says. “But at the same time, they’re going to turn 18 at some point, and then how will they handle that? Some do it well, some don’t.”

Carson still has a few years to ponder

that eventuality. Meanwhile, Todashi is fine, and his escape even led to a teachable moment: “Thankfully he was hiding in the closet — and we learned that when he sheds, he likes to bury himself.”

WHILE CHASING FROGS and meeting different people sounds like a pretty good day in the life of a homeschool family, there are challenges to taking on the responsibility of a parent-teacher.

Withdrawing from school is easy enough — in Nevada, you simply file a Notice of Intent to Homeschool form, along with a statement outlining a plan to educate the child in English, mathematics, science, and social studies, including history, geography, economics, and government. After that, you’re on your own. No one checks up on your child’s progress, and you never need to turn in grades or test scores or contact the state again.

Surprenant homeschools her three kids, a third grader, a fourth grader, and a kindergartner. She was a working professional — an executive at an accounting firm — before the pandemic.

“I always imagined my kids would go to public school. I went to public school. Then Covid hit,” she says. While paying more attention to her kids’ education at home, and checking out the performance

of public schools, she had a revelation: “Nevada ranks in the bottom academically, and I said, ‘I can do better than that.’ I’m very type A.” She began homeschooling while continuing her job. At first, with early education, it was no problem. But as the kids grew, so did her natural desire to create the best education for them.

Though she was enjoying homeschooling, a couple years into it she realized that, in addition to finding the best curricula, she would also need to deepen her research about early brain function and learning styles, among many other things.

“It’s probably one of the hardest things about homeschooling. Sometimes it’s appropriate to do a different curriculum for different children in your own home,” Surprenant says. She’s already changed their math program twice this year. “There isn’t one way to do it.”

She eventually quit her career and created the Nevada Homeschool Association to help parents find resources.

Just as there are many types of learners and many types of teachers, there are countless resources for homeschoolers — from groups and co-ops of other homeschoolers to day-by-day, subject-by-subject curricula you can buy. One can design an independent study plan by going to the public library or online to any number

of sites that offer materials, sometimes for free. When searching for resources, a homeschool parent has to be aware that many, due to the roots of homeschooling, are Christian-based, which may include discussion of faith in almost every subject, or a single unit on Christianity. In short, choosing curricula can be overwhelming. And it can get expensive, particularly if a family has multiple children. Not everyone is in the financial position to get certain academically rigorous curricula, which can run up to $1,000 or more per student. “You really have to do your research,” Surprenant says.

Without a state-mandated testing system, how do homeschool parents know if their child is progressing at the pace of public-school peers?

“That’s a challenge — we’re comparing apples to oranges,” she says. “Public schools do that by standardized testing. It’s been proven to be bad. It is the way they assess readiness to graduate. Homeschoolers, you buy your curriculum, and it has assessments throughout. At the very end you have a final test.”

To be fair, the jury — or rather, the research — is still out on whether standardized testing is demonstrably “bad.” Several high-profile groups contend that it’s the only effective way to measure progress across large populations and (ideally) make adjustments to systems accordingly. If a child wants to re-enter CCSD, then the district will place them at the grade that corresponds to their age.

Additionally, community colleges like CSN allow students to enroll at 16, which some homeschoolers do either to supplement their education or rack up credits in case they apply to a university. Each university has its own requirements for what homeschooled applicants must produce on an application.

This leads inexorably to the big, perhaps unresolvable question: Is homeschooling as effective as traditional schooling? Research findings appear to be mixed. Some studies have concluded that homeschooled students perform above average on standardized tests, and better than traditional students in emotional and psychological well-being. But scholars have attacked these studies’ methodologies and conclusions. Other studies show a persistent “math gap” among the homeschooled.

Indeed, the Coalition for Responsible Home Education says that homeschooling success depends to a large degree on factors

that influence public-school students as well, such as family background and socioeconomic standing. “While evidence undoubtedly shows that homeschooling can lead to high academic outcomes,” the organization says on its website, “claims that homeschooled students universally perform better than their school-educated peers are baseless.”

ACROSS THE BOARD, homeschooling is growing and getting more diverse. It looks broadly like the larger population, Watson says, whereas it used to look — and carry the reputation of being — disproportionately white and Christian.

“We (now) see concentrations of students with special needs in homeschooling,” she says. “Also, advanced learners and more students whose parents identify as LGBTQ.”

Alina Laliberte, youth and family program manager at The Center, an LGBTQ+ support organization in Las Vegas, says their population often turns to homeschooling to guard students’ mental health.

“The rise in homeschooling in the communities I work with mainly comes from the challenges LGBTQ+ children face as an at-risk population,” she says. “Bullying and discrimination are present in schools, from both students and adults, which in turn causes them to struggle with not only their academics, but their mental health.”

Also, for nonwhite students, there is a concern in public schools about both overt bullying and, Watson says, “softer racism, where it’s not culturally responsive curriculum or pedagogy for Hispanic/Latino families, or language is not reflected in the curriculum — maybe they have once-a-week Spanish class, but they’re seeking more.

“Then we have Black homeschoolers creating their own communities, because they didn’t feel included in the majority white homeschool groups,” Watson adds.

Jourdan Robinson, a Black and Indigenous Las Vegas woman, created a co-op when she couldn’t find one in which she felt comfortable. “My decision (to homeschool) started with me. It stemmed from my traditional upbringing in school — I felt I was never able to be my truest, most authentic self,” Robinson says. “When my kids came into this world, I did not want them to be like that, I wanted them to know who they were.”

In the beginning, Robinson says, she was able to teach her oldest child in his early years without much extra support.

She made teaching materials from scratch — “I’m a very creative person” — but when she had her second and third children, she knew she needed assistance. Plus, she wanted her kids to have friends. So, she went online and investigated local homeschooling groups.

“A lot of Facebook groups, you stick your toe in the water and see — ultimately, it’s like choosing a school. It’s the community you’ll be in in your pivotal years,” she says. “I was checking them out and feeling vibes, and it was mostly not good. They already had a set look and feel that did not fit me as a Black and Indigenous woman.”

So, she started The Culture Collective co-op in September 2025. She posted about it on social media and handed out fliers. Soon, her desire for homeschool support became an organization that welcomes everyone for field trips, art, and park events. And community doesn’t just mean kids.

“Moms need community, fathers need community, too. We started off as a homeschool co-op, but I immediately saw that we needed to be open to public school kids, as well, who haven’t found their group. So, we are open to that. We are a family hub.”

Kathy Hernandez, founder of the Southern Nevada Homeschool Association, which helps parents find resources, says something similar about her small group. “My co-op (is) me and two other moms.” Each one contributes to the teaching, in addition to the basics; for example, Hernandez usually teaches cooking and Bible classes, while the others typically teach Spanish and science. Then, she says, “We have lunch together, we establish these beautiful in-depth relationships, and the moms are friends.”

Finding your group — whether it’s in online silos or real-life social gatherings — seems to be key in any form of education, in any form of living. While homeschoolers used to be notoriously isolated, changes in the world, including a willingness to upend institutions that appear to need overhauling, are constantly creating new ways of doing things, and new networks for learning.

“It goes back to a lot of us just figuring out (that) traditional school wasn’t working, and we are all in the same boat trying to make a way. I don’t fault anyone for doing it their way,” Robinson says. “Have the courage to do it. If you know that this is something that you want to do, have the courage to do it. The payoffs are something you can’t measure.” ✦

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TOP DOCTORS & DENTISTS 2026

WITH OVER 30 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE researching, reviewing, and selecting Top Doctors, Castle Connolly is a trusted and credible healthcare research and information company. Our mission is to help people find the best healthcare by connecting patients with best-in-class healthcare providers.

THE VALLEY’S BEST PHYSICIANS AND DENTISTS AS CHOSEN BY THEIR PEERS

Castle Connolly's physician-led team of researchers follows a rigorous screening process to select top doctors on both the national and regional levels. Its online nomination process is open to all licensed physicians in America who are able to nominate physicians in any medical specialty and in any part of the country, as well as indicate whether the nominated physician(s) is, in their opinion, among the best in their region in their medical specialty or among the best in the nation in their medical specialty. Then, Castle Connolly’s research team thoroughly vets each physician’s professional qualifications, education, hospital and faculty appointments, research leadership, professional reputation, disciplinary history and if available, outcomes data. Additionally, a physician’s interpersonal skills such as listening and communicating effectively, demonstrating empathy, and instilling trust

and confidence, are also considered in the review process. The Castle Connolly Doctor Directory is the largest network of peer-nominated physicians in the nation.

In addition to Top Doctors, Castle Connolly’s research team also identifies Rising Stars, early career doctors who are emerging leaders in the medical community.

Physicians selected for inclusion in this magazine's "Top Doctors" and “Rising Stars” feature may also appear online at www.castleconnolly.com, or in conjunction with other Castle Connolly Top Doctors databases online and/or in print.

Castle Connolly is part of Everyday Health Group, a recognized leader in patient and provider education, attracting an engaged audience of over 74 million health consumers and over 890,000 U.S. practicing physicians and clinicians to its premier health and wellness digital properties. Our mission is to drive better clinical and health outcomes through decision-making informed by highly relevant information, data, and analytics. We empower healthcare providers and consumers with trusted content and services delivered through Everyday Health Group’s world-class brands.

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ALLERGY & IMMUNOLOGY

Bob Miyake, MD

Allergy Partners of Nevada, 6080 South Fort Apache Road, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702) 342-9250

Special Expertise: Asthma

David Tottori, MD

Tottori Allergy & Asthma Associates, 4000 East Charleston Boulevard, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 240-4233

Special Expertise: Asthma & Allergy, Eczema

Ricardo Vinuya, MD

Optum Allergy, 6190 South Fort Apache Road, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702) 724-8844

Special Expertise: Pediatric Allergy & Immunology

Sandy Yip, MD

Southern Nevada Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, 2821 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 100, Henderson, (702) 735-1556

Special Expertise: Allergy-Adult & Pediatric, Nasal Allergy, Skin Allergies

BARIATRIC SURGERY

Francis Teng, MD

Advanced Surgical Care, 653 North Town Center Drive, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702) 838-5888

Special Expertise: Bariatric/Obesity Surgery, Laparoscopic Surgery, Robotic Surgery

CARDIAC ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY

Arjun Gururaj, MD

Nevada Heart & Vascular Center, 401 North Buffalo Drive, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 227-3422

Special Expertise: Arrhythmias, Heart Failure, Atrial Fibrillation

Niuton Koide, MD

Las Vegas Heart Associates, 2880 North Tenaya Way, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 962-2200

Special Expertise: Arrhythmias

Foad Moazez, MD

Nevada Cardiology Associates, 3150 North Tenaya Way, Suite 460, Las Vegas, (702) 233-1000

Special Expertise: Arrhythmias

CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

Sean Ameli, MD

Ameli / Dadourian Medicine, 400 South Rampart Boulevard, Suite 240, Las Vegas, (702) 906-1100

Special Expertise: Cholesterol/Lipid Disorders, Preventive Cardiology, Hypertension

Keshav Chander, MD

Smart Heart Care & Smart Medical Care, 8970 West Tropicana Avenue, Suite 6, Las Vegas, (702) 473-5333

Special Expertise: Cardiac CT Angiography

Richard Chen, MD

Nevada Cardiology Associates, 5380 South Rainbow Boulevard, Suite 308, Las Vegas, (702) 463-8988

Special Expertise: Coronary Artery Disease, Angioplasty & Stent Placement, EchocardiographyTransesophageal

Berge Dadourian, MD

Ameli / Dadourian Medicine, 400 South Rampart Boulevard, Suite 240, Las Vegas, (702) 906-1100

Special Expertise: Peripheral Vascular Disease, Concierge Medicine

Shadi Daoud, MD

Las Vegas Heart Associates, 2880 North Tenaya Way, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 962-2200

Special Expertise: Advanced Heart Failure, Cardiomyopathy, Telemedicine

Vanessa Gastwirth, MD ✚

Nevada Cardiology Associates, 3150 North Tenaya Way, Suite 460, Las Vegas, (702) 233-1000

Samuel Green, MD

Nevada Cardiology Associates, 3150 North Tenaya Way, Suite 460, Las Vegas, (702) 233-1000

Special Expertise: Nuclear Cardiology

Patrick Hsu, MD

Nevada Cardiology Associates, 3150 North Tenaya Way, Suite 460, Las Vegas, (702) 233-1000

Ronny Jiji, MD

Las Vegas Heart Associates, 2880 North Tenaya Way, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 962-2200

Special Expertise: Congenital Heart DiseaseAdult, Cardiac MRI

Thomas Lambert, MD

Nevada Heart & Vascular Center, 3150 North Tenaya Way, Suite 135, Las Vegas, (702) 227-3422

Special Expertise: Interventional Cardiology

Corey Lum, DO Intermountain Health

Alta Cardiology Clinic, 10040 Alta Drive, Suite 350, Las Vegas, (702) 360-7600

Special Expertise: Heart Failure

CHILD NEUROLOGY

Monica Chacon, MD ✚ Neurology Center of Nevada, 2430 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Henderson, (702) 247-9994

Special Expertise: Neurophysiology

COLON & RECTAL SURGERY

Ovunc Bardakcioglu, MD

UNLV Health, Department of Surgery, Las Vegas, (702) 671-5150

Special Expertise: Minimally Invasive Surgery, Robotic Surgery, Hemorrhoids

Calvin Lyons, MD

Las Vegas Urology, 2310 Corporate Circle, Suite 200, Henderson, (702) 385-4342

Special Expertise: Anorectal Disorders, Minimally Invasive Surgery

DERMATOLOGY

Miriam Bettencourt, MD

Thomas Dermatology, 2871 Saint Rose Parkway, Suite 130, Henderson, (702) 430-5333

Special Expertise: Melanoma

Michael Bryan, MD

Las Vegas Skin & Cancer Clinics, 400 North Stephanie Street, Suite 400, Henderson, (702) 933-0225

Special Expertise: Hair & Nail Disorders, Skin Cancer

Victoria Farley, MD ✚ Vivida Dermatology, 2110 East Flamingo Road, Suite 213, Las Vegas, (702) 255-6647

Special Expertise: Cosmetic Dermatology, Acne & Rosacea, Psoriasis

Douglas Fife, MD

Vivida Dermatology, 6460 Medical Center Street, Suite 200 and 350, Las Vegas, (702) 255-6647

Special Expertise: Mohs Surgery

Matthew Hand, MD

Thomas Dermatology, 6170 North Durango Drive, Suite 140, Las Vegas, (702) 430-5333

Special Expertise:

Mohs Surgery, Scar Removal

Lionel Handler, MD

Strimling Dermatology, Laser & Vein Institute, 10105 Banburry Cross Drive, Suite 350, Las Vegas, (702) 243-6400

Special Expertise: Pediatric Dermatology, Cosmetic Surgery

Mac Machan, MD

Vivida Dermatology, 6460 Medical Center Street, Suite 200 and 350, Las Vegas, (702) 255-6647

Special Expertise: Mohs Surgery, Skin Cancer Surgery

Robert Strimling, MD

Strimling Dermatology, Laser & Vein Institute, 10105 Banburry Cross Drive, Suite 350, Las Vegas, (702) 243-6400

Special Expertise: Mohs Surgery, Cosmetic Dermatology, Varicose Veins

Candace Thornton

Spann, MD ✚ Couture Dermatology & Plastic Surgery, 9950 West Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, (702) 998-9001

Special Expertise: Hair Loss in Women, Facial Rejuvenation, Botox

DEVELOPMENTALBEHAVIORAL PEDIATRICS

Mario Gaspar de Alba, MD

Grant A Gift Autism Foundation - Ackerman Center, 630 South Rancho Drive, Suite A, Las Vegas, (702) 998-9505

Special Expertise: Autism Spectrum Disorders

DIAGNOSTIC RADIOLOGY

Rajneesh Agrawal, MD

Desert Radiology, 2020 Palomino Lane, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 759-8600

Special Expertise: Neuroradiology

Galen Hewell, MD

Red Rock Radiology Associates, 7130 Smoke Ranch Road, Suite 101, Las Vegas, (702) 527-8945

Alan Weissman, MD

Desert Radiology, 2020 Palomino Lane, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 759-8600

Special Expertise: Cancer Imaging, Nuclear Medicine

ENDOCRINOLOGY, DIABETES & METABOLISM

Brian Berelowitz, MD

Ameli / Dadourian Medicine, 400 South Rampart Boulevard, Suite 240, Las Vegas, (702) 906-1100

Special Expertise: Diabetes

Amber Champion, MD

UNLV Health, Department of Endocrinology, Las Vegas, (702) 671-6469

Special Expertise: Diabetes, LGBTQ+ Health

Kenneth Izuora, MD

UNLV Health, Department of Endocrinology, Las Vegas, (702) 671-6469

Special Expertise: Diabetes

W. Reid Litchfield, MD

Desert Endocrinology, 2415 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 100, Henderson, (702) 434-8400

Quang Nguyen, DO

Las Vegas Endocrinology, 229 North Pecos Road, Suite 100, Henderson, (702) 605-5750

Special Expertise: Hypertension, Nutrition & Obesity

Omid Rad Pour, MD

Palm Medical Group, 9280 West Sunset Road, Suite 306, Las Vegas, (702) 696-7256

Special Expertise: Diabetes, Thyroid Disorders

Maryam Rivaz, MD

Palm Medical Group, 9280 West Sunset Road, Suite 306, Las Vegas, (702) 696-7256

Special Expertise: Osteoporosis

FACIAL PLASTIC SURGERY/ OTOLARYNGOLOGY

Harry Ching, MD

UNLV Health, Ear Nose and Throat Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 671-6480

Special Expertise: Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Facial Rejuvenation, Facelift

Sina Nasri-Chenijani, MD

3150 North Tenaya Way, Suite 340,Las Vegas, (702) 804-4729

Special Expertise: Head & Neck Surgery, Voice Disorders, Thyroid & Parathyroid Surgery

Robert Troell, MD

Troell Cosmetic Surgery and Facial Plastic Clinic, 53754 Apache Road, Suite 101, Las Vegas, (702) 242-6488

Special Expertise: Facial Plastic Surgery, Rhinoplasty, Reconstructive Plastic

SPECIALTY INDEX

Allen Young, MD, MPH * Ear, Nose & Throat

Consultants of Nevada, 3195 Saint Rose Parkway, Suite 210, Henderson, (702) 792-6700

Special Expertise: Hearing Loss/Tinnitus, Chronic Ear Disease, Dizziness/Vertigo

FAMILY MEDICINE

Kimberly Adams, MD

Total Wellness Family Medicine, 5225 South Durango Drive, Las Vegas, (725) 316-5230

Special Expertise: Primary Care, Adolescent Medicine, Sports Medicine

Jenny Chia, MD

Siena Hills Primary Care, 2789 Sunridge Heights Parkway, Suite 100, Henderson, (702) 614-0850

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Lisa Haworth, MD

2482 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 110, Henderson, (702) 719-6003

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Sunita Kalra, MD

Intermountain Healthcare, 9077 South Pecos Road, Suite 3800, Henderson, (702) 947-1940

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Sungwook Kim, MD

Brighton Family Medicine, 1720 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 140, Henderson, (702) 566-5445

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Shari Klein, DO 8571 West Lake Mead Boulevard, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 545-0283

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Barry Nahin, MD

Nahin Concierge Care, 8960 West Tropicana Avenue, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 385-9505

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Steven Poertner, MD

Valley Health Physician Alliance, West Henderson Primary Care, Henderson, (702) 551-2079

Special Expertise: Preventive Medicine, Acute Care

Darren Rahaman, MD

Nevada Health Centers, 1799 Mount Mariah Drive, Las Vegas, (702) 383-1961

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Lara Wenner, MD

Intermountain Healthcare, 1302 West Craig Road, Suite A, Las Vegas, (702) 473-8380

Special Expertise: Primary Care

GASTROENTEROLOGY

Tarek Ammar, MD

Comprehensive Digestive Institute of Nevada, 9260 West Sunset Road, Suite 306, Las Vegas, (702) 483-4483

Special Expertise: Endoscopic Ultrasound, Colon & Rectal Cancer, Digestive Disorders

Brent Burnette, MD

Gastroenterology Associates, 6950 South Cimarron Road, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702) 796-0231

Special Expertise: Gastrointestinal Disorders

Gary Chen, MD

Comprehensive Digestive Institute of Nevada, 9260 West Sunset Road, Suite 306, Las Vegas, (702) 483-4483

Special Expertise: Digestive Disorders, Celiac Disease, Colonoscopy

Vishal Gandotra, MD

Vegas Gastroenterology, 5701 West Charleston Boulevard, Suite 201, Las Vegas, (702) 750-0313

Special Expertise: Colonoscopy

Nikhil Karanth, MD

Digestive Associates, 866 Seven Hills Drive, Suite 104, Henderson, (702) 633-0207

Special Expertise: Liver Disease

Andrew Kim, MD

Comprehensive Digestive Institute of Nevada, 9260 West Sunset Road, Suite 306, Las Vegas, (702) 483-4483

Special Expertise: Colonoscopy & Polypectomy, Barrett’s Esophagus, Swallowing Disorders

Gregory Kwok, MD Gastroenterology Associates, 6950 South Cimarron Road, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702) 796-0231

Special Expertise: Gastrointestinal Functional Disorders

Frank Nemec, MD Gastroenterology Associates, 6950 South Cimarron Road, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702) 796-0231

Special Expertise: Gastrointestinal Functional Disorders

David Shih, MD/PhD

Comprehensive Digestive Institute of Nevada, 9260 West Sunset Road, Suite 306, Las Vegas, (702) 483-4483

Special Expertise: Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), Peptic Ulcer Disease

Christian Stone, MD

Comprehensive Digestive Institute of Nevada, 9260 West Sunset Road, Suite 306, Las Vegas, (702) 483-4483

Special Expertise: Inflammatory Bowel Disease/Crohn’s, Digestive Disorders, Colon & Rectal Cancer

GERIATRIC MEDICINE

Esteban Hennings, MD

Humanitas Primary Care, 3201 South Maryland Parkway, Suite 512, Las Vegas, (702) 685-7700

HAND SURGERY

Andrew Bronstein, MD

Bronstein Hand Center, 10135 West Twain Avenue, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 458-4263

Special Expertise: Wrist Reconstruction, Pediatric Hand Surgery, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

David Fadell, DO

Hand Surgery Specialists of Nevada, 9321 West Sunset Road, Las Vegas, (702) 645-7800

Special Expertise: Trauma, Elbow Surgery, Shoulder Surgery

Kevin Golshani, MD

Nevada Orthopedic & Spine Center, 1505 Wigwam Parkway, Henderson, (702) 258-3773

Special Expertise: Hand & Upper Extremity Surgery

Daniel Kokmeyer, MD

Hand Surgery Specialists of Nevada, 9321 West Sunset Road, Las Vegas, (702) 645-7800

Special Expertise: Hand & Upper Extremity Surgery, Arthritis

Walter Song, MD

Desert Orthopaedic Center, 2800 East Desert Inn Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 731-1616

Special Expertise: Shoulder Surgery, Hand & Elbow Surgery

James Vahey, MD

Hand Center of Nevada, 8585 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 798-8585

Special Expertise: Hand & Upper Extremity Surgery

Olivia Wang, MD ✚

Bronstein Hand Center, 10135 West Twain Avenue, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 458-4263

Special Expertise: Hand & Wrist Surgery, Upper Extremity Surgery

INFECTIOUS DISEASE

Fadi El-Salibi, MD

Infectious Diseases of Southern Nevada, 825 North Gibson Road, Suite 311, Henderson, (702) 776-8300

Special Expertise: HIV/AIDS

Brian Lipman, MD 10001 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 407, Henderson, (702) 909-7170

Special Expertise: HIV/AIDS

Ronald Shockley, MD

Infectious Disease Partners, 3483 South Eastern Avenue, Floor 2, Las Vegas, (702) 309-2311

Special Expertise: HIV/AIDS

Chukwudum Uche, MD

Pulmonary Infectious Disease and Wound Care, 5770 South Durango Drive, Suite 105, Las Vegas, (702) 737-0740

Special Expertise: HIV, Travel Medicine

Kathleen Wairimu, MD

Infection Doctors, 2810 West Charleston Boulevard, Suite 48, Las Vegas, (702) 343-7610

INTERNAL MEDICINE

Bashab Banerji, MD

Internal Medicine Clinic, 5731 South Fort Apache Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 740-5311

Special Expertise:

Primary Care, Pulmonary Disease, Anxiety & Depression

Afi Bruce, MD

Intermountain Healthcare, 4275 Burnham Avenue, Suite 255, Las Vegas, (702) 369-0088

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Marija Dilic, MD

Intermountain Healthcare, 4275 Burnham Avenue, Suite 255, Las Vegas, (702) 369-0088

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Rama Harouni, MD

Harouni Concierge Care, 8960 West Tropicana Avenue, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 385-9505

Special Expertise: Primary Care, Concierge Medicine

John Hou, MD

Intermountain Healthcare, 4275 Burnham Avenue, Suite 255, Las Vegas, (702) 369-0088

Special Expertise: Primary Care

SangOuk Lee, DO

Dignity Health Medical Group

Nevada - Henderson Primary Care Clinic, 10001 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 101, Henderson, (702) 616-5801

Special Expertise: Adult Medicine, Hypertension, Diabetes

Mohammed Najmi, MD

Primary and Senior Care, 2501 Fire Mesa Street, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702) 463-3333

Special Expertise: Primary Care, Eating Disorders, Nutrition

Aditi Singh, MD ✚

UNLV Health, Department of Internal Medicine, Las Vegas, (702) 671-5060

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Orlando Sosa, MD

Dignity Health Medical Group

- Pavilion Primary Care Clinic, 800 Gibson Road, Suite 201, Henderson, (702) 616-5801

Special Expertise:

Cholesterol/Lipid Disorders, Chronic Disease Management, Liver Disease

Patricio Szajnowicz, MD

Dignity Health Medical Group Nevada - West Flamingo, 9880 West Flamingo Road, Suite 220, Las Vegas, (702) 616-5801

Special Expertise: Preventive Medicine, Hypertension, Chronic Kidney Disease

Candice Tung, MD ✚

Jerry Schwartz & Associates, 7395 South Pecos Road, Suite 102, Las Vegas, (702) 737-8657

Special Expertise: Primary Care, Diabetes

John Varras, MD

UNLV Health, Department of Internal Medicine, Las Vegas, (702) 671-5060

Special Expertise: Primary Care, Diabetes, Heart Disease

Raji Venkat, MD

Dignity Health Medical Group, 10001 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 101, Henderson, (702) 616-5801

Sandhya Wahi Gururaj, MD ✚ UNLV Health, Department of Internal Medicine, Las Vegas, (702) 671-5060

Special Expertise: Primary Care, Hypertension

Henry Wang, MD

Wang Medical, 1346 South Decatur Boulevard, Las Vegas, (702) 889-8355

Special Expertise: Primary Care

INTERVENTIONAL CARDIOLOGY

Salman Akhtar, MD 6040 South Fort Apache Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 805-5678

Special Expertise: Acute Coronary Syndromes, Peripheral Vascular Disease, Heart Failure

Cam Choji, MD

Heart Center of Nevada, 3196 South Maryland Parkway, Suite 207, Las Vegas, (702) 732-0022

Special Expertise: Structural Heart Disease, Coronary Angioplasty/ Stents, Heart Attack

Anthony Dota, MD

Las Vegas Heart Associates, 2880 North Tenaya Way, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 962-2200

Special Expertise: Structural Heart Disease, Heart Failure, Cardiac Catheterization

Dalia Hawwass, MD

Nevada Heart & Vascular Center, 4275 Burnham Avenue, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 227-3422

Navid Kazemi, MD

Nevada Cardiology Associates, 3150 North Tenaya Way, Suite 460, Las Vegas, (702) 233-1000

Special Expertise: Arrhythmias, Heart Failure

James Lally, MD

Heart Center of Nevada, 700 Shadow Lane, Suite 240, Las Vegas, (702) 384-0022

Special Expertise: Arrhythmias

Sanjay Malhotra, MD

Nevada Heart & Vascular Center, 4275 Burnham Avenue, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 227-3422

Tariq Marroush, MD

Nevada Cardiology Associates, 3150 North Tenaya Way, Suite 460, Las Vegas, (702) 233-1000

Cres Miranda, MD

Nevada Heart & Vascular Center, 401 North Buffalo Drive, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 227-3422

Janmejay Patel, MD

Intermountain Healthcare, 8205 West Warm Springs Road, Suite 210, Las Vegas, (702) 534-5464

MATERNAL & FETAL MEDICINE

Wilson Huang, MD

High Risk Pregnancy Center, 880 Seven Hills Drive, Suite 260, Henderson, (702) 382-3200

Special Expertise: Prematurity/Low Birth Weight Infants

Brian Iriye, MD

High Risk Pregnancy Center, 2011 Pinto Lane, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702) 382-3200

Special Expertise: Prenatal Diagnosis, Diabetes in Pregnancy, Multiple Gestation

Manijeh Kamyar, MD

High Risk Pregnancy Center, 2011 Pinto Lane, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702) 382-3200

Special Expertise: High-Risk Pregnancy

Sean Keeler, MD

Desert Perinatal Associates, 5761 South Fort Apache Road, Las Vegas, (702) 341-6610

Special Expertise: Premature Labor

Mary Khine-Stickler, MD

Desert Perinatal Associates, 5761 South Fort Apache Road, Las Vegas, (702) 341-6610

Stephen Wold, MD

High Risk Pregnancy Center, 2011 Pinto Lane, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702) 382-3200

Special Expertise: High-Risk Pregnancy

MEDICAL ONCOLOGY

Fadi Braiteh, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 3730 South Eastern Avenue, Las Vegas, (702) 952-3400

Special Expertise: Gastrointestinal Cancer, Breast Cancer, Colon & Rectal Cancer

Stephani Christensen, MD ✚

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 1505 Wigwam Parkway, Suite 130, Henderson, (702) 856-1400

Special Expertise: Breast Cancer

Khoi Dao, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 10001 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 108, Henderson, (702) 952-3444

Special Expertise: Hematologic Malignancies, Lung Cancer

Muhammad Ghani, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 2460 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Henderson, (702) 822-2000

Special Expertise: Breast Cancer, Colon Cancer, Lung Cancer

Russell Gollard, MD

Optum Cancer Care, 2300 West Charleston Boulevard, Las Vegas, (702) 724-8787

Special Expertise: Hematology

Vikas Gupta, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 9280 West Sunset Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 952-1251

Special Expertise: Hematology

Liawaty Ho, MD ✚

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 100 North City Parkway, Suite 160, Las Vegas, (702) 952-3400

Special Expertise: Breast Cancer, Lymphoma, Hematology

Regan Holdridge, MD ✚

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 1505 Wigwam Parkway, Suite 130, Henderson, (702) 856-1400

Special Expertise: Breast Cancer, Colon Cancer, Hematology

Family Medicine

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Henry Igid, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 653 North Town Center Drive, Suite 402, Las Vegas, (702) 243-7200

Special Expertise: Anemia, Leukemia & Lymphoma, Lung Cancer

Karen Jacks, MD ✚

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 9280 West Sunset Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 952-1251

Special Expertise: Breast Cancer, Hematology

Clark Jean, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada Northwest, 7445 Peak Drive, Las Vegas, (702) 952-2140

Special Expertise: Hematologic Malignancies

H. Keshava-Prasad, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 3730 South Eastern Avenue, Las Vegas, (702) 952-3400

Special Expertise: Leukemia & Lymphoma, Palliative Care, Hematology

Edwin Kingsley, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 3730 South Eastern Avenue, Las Vegas, (702) 952-3400

Special Expertise: Hematologic Malignancies

Anthony Nguyen, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 1505 Wigwam Parkway, Suite 130, Henderson, (702) 856-1400

Special Expertise: Gastrointestinal Cancer, Anemias & Red Blood Cell Disorders, Hematology

Rupesh Parikh, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 10001 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 108, Henderson, (702) 952-3444

Special Expertise: Hematology

Ramalingam Ratnasabapathy, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 2460 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Henderson, (702) 822-2000

Special Expertise: Hematology

Hamidreza Sanatinia, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 9280 West Sunset Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 952-1251

Special Expertise: Hematology

Anuradha Thummala, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada Northwest, 7445 Peak Drive, Las Vegas, (702) 952-2140

Restituto Tibayan, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 2460 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Henderson, (702) 822-2000

Special Expertise: Hematology

Ann Wierman, MD ✚

3150 North Tenaya Way, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702) 749-3700

Special Expertise: Breast Cancer, Lung Cancer, Hematology

Steven Yates, MD

Intermountain Healthcare, 3131 La Canada Street, Suite 140, Las Vegas, (702) 735-7154

NEONATAL-PERINATAL MEDICINE

Elmer David, MD

A Las Vegas Medical Group, 4043 East Sunset Road, Henderson, (702) 733-0744

Special Expertise: Neonatal Nutrition

NEPHROLOGY

Adin Boldur, MD

Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada, 8775 West, Deer Springs Way, Las Vegas, (702) 877-1887

Special Expertise: Hypertension

Jay Chu, MD

Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada, 1294 South Jones Boulevard, Las Vegas, (702) 877-1887

Radhika Janga, MD

Nevada Kidney Disease & Hypertension Centers, 5815 South Rainbow Boulevard, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702) 732-1586

Dijana Jefic, MD

Las Vegas Kidney and Hypertension Specialists, 229 North Pecos Road, Suite 120, Henderson, (702) 629-7510

Samuel Kantor, MD

Nevada Kidney Disease & Hypertension Centers, 1581 Mount Mariah Drive, Suite 150, Las Vegas, (702) 851-7766

Special Expertise: Kidney Disease

Bindu Khanna, MD

Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada, 1294 South Jones Boulevard, Las Vegas, (702) 877-1887

Special Expertise: Fluid/Electrolyte Balance

Lawrence Lehrner, MD

Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada, 1294 South Jones Boulevard, Las Vegas, (702) 877-1887

Special Expertise: Chronic Kidney Disease

Deepak Nandikanti, MD

Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada, 2065 North Las Vegas Boulevard, North Las Vegas, (702) 877-1887

Chidi Okafor, MD

Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada, 2065 North Las Vegas Boulevard, North Las Vegas, (702) 877-1887

Special Expertise: Hypertension, Dialysis-Peritoneal

Asima Raja, MD

Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada, 9280 West Sunset Road, Suite 438, Las Vegas, (702) 877-1887

Syed Shah, MD

Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada, 1294 South Jones Boulevard, Las Vegas, (702) 877-1887

Special Expertise: Transplant Medicine-Kidney

Marwan Takieddine, MD

Nevada Kidney Disease & Hypertension Centers, 2450 Fire Mesa Street, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702) 732-1586

Special Expertise: Hypertension

Vincent Yang, MD

Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada, 1294 South Jones Boulevard, Las Vegas, (702) 877-1887

Special Expertise: Diabetes, Chronic Kidney Disease, Kidney Stones

NEUROLOGICAL SURGERY

Derek Duke, MD

The Spine & Brain Institute, 861 Coronado Center Drive, Suite 200, Henderson, (702) 948-9088

Special Expertise: Brain & Spinal Surgery

TOP DOCTORS ARE OUR SPECIALTY

When looking for the TOP DOCTORS in education, look no further than the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV.

When looking for the TOP DOCTORS in healthcare, look no further than UNLV Health.

The future of health starts here.

Congratulations to our faculty physicians on being recognized as a Top Doctor in Las Vegas!

Ovunc Bardakcioglu, MD

Jennifer Baynosa, MD

Richard Baynosa, MD

Amber Champion, MD

Harry Ching, MD

David Di John, MD

Nadia Gomez, MD

Sandhya Wahi Gururaj, MD

Kenneth Izuora, MD

Daniel Kirgan, MD

John Menezes, MD

Alison Netski, MD

Beverly Neyland, MD

Matthew Ng, MD

David Parks, MD

Fatehali Peera, MD

Michael Scheidler, MD

Rebecca Scherr, MD

Dodds Simangan, DO

Aditi Singh, MD

Charles St. Hill, MD

John Varras, MD

Robert Wang, MD

To learn more about the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV and how you can support its mission, visit unlv.edu/medicine. For an appointment at UNLV Health, please call 702.660.8658.

Jason Garber, MD

Las Vegas Neurosurgical Institute, 3012 South Durango Drive, Las Vegas, (702) 835-0088

Special Expertise: Spinal Surgery, Spinal Surgery-Complex, Peripheral Nerve Surgery

Michael Seiff, MD

The Spine & Brain Institute, 8530 West Sunset Road, Suite 250, Las Vegas, (702) 948-9088

Special Expertise: Brain & Spinal Surgery, Minimally Invasive Surgery

NEUROLOGY

Charles Bernick, MD

Cleveland Clinic, Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas, (702) 483-6000

Special Expertise: Dementia, Memory Disorders

Shanker Dixit, MD

Neurology Center of Las Vegas, 2480 Professional Court, Las Vegas, (702) 405-7100

Special Expertise: Clinical Neurophysiology, Epilepsy/Seizure Disorders, Headache

Lydia Estanislao, MD 4206 West Charleston Boulevard, Las Vegas, (702) 331-6709

Le Hua, MD ✚

Cleveland Clinic, Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas, (702) 483-6000

Special Expertise: Multiple Sclerosis

Zoltan Mari, MD

Cleveland Clinic, Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas, (702) 483-6000

Special Expertise: Movement Disorders

Christopher Milford, MD

Sunrise Health Clinics, 6767 West Tropicana Avenue, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 209-0370

Special Expertise: Clinical Neurophysiology

Abraham Nagy, MD

Nevada Headache Institute, 400 South Rampart Boulevard, Suite 295, Las Vegas, (702) 432-3224

Special Expertise: Headache

Dylan Wint, MD

Cleveland Clinic, Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas, (702) 483-6000

Special Expertise: Neurodegenerative Disorders, Cognitive Impairment-Mild

NUCLEAR MEDICINE

Bharat Mocherla, MD

Las Vegas Medical Research, 2851 North Tenaya Way, Suite 103, Las Vegas, (702) 750-0222

Special Expertise: PET Imaging

OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY

Golnaz Alemi, MD

Dr. Nader and Associates

OB/GYN, 1815 East Lake Mead Boulevard, Suite 215, North Las Vegas, (702) 818-1919

Jacob Eisert, MD *

Legacy For Women, 870 Seven Hills Drive, Suite 103, Henderson, (715) 777-0414

Special Expertise: Obstetrics, High-Risk Pregnancy

Amit Garg, MD

Women’s Health Associates of Southern Nevada, 2580 Saint Rose Parkway, Suite 140, Henderson, (702) 862-8862

Special Expertise: Menstrual Disorders, Women’s Health

Nadia Gomez, MD ✚

UNLV Health, Maternal Fetal Medicine Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 780-5500

Special Expertise: Minimally Invasive Surgery, Pain-Pelvic, Endometriosis

Kevin Hsiung, MD

Complete Care ObGYN, 1528 West Warm Springs Road, Suite 100, Henderson, (702) 213-5601

Special Expertise: Menstrual Disorders, Women’s Health

Staci McHale, MD Women’s Health Associates of Southern Nevada, 8850 West Sunset Road, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702) 740-0500

Special Expertise: High-Risk Pregnancy

Philip McLemore, MD

My OBGYN, 6850 North Durango Drive, Suite 401, Las Vegas, (702) 463-2981

Special Expertise: Women’s Health, Minimally Invasive Surgery

Edmond Pack, MD

Women’s Health Associates of Southern Nevada, 2580 Saint Rose Parkway, Suite 140, Henderson, (702) 862-8862

Special Expertise: Minimally Invasive Surgery, Gynecologic Surgery, Robotic Surgery

Tammy Reynolds, MD

Women’s Health Associates of Southern Nevada, 2880 North Tenaya Way, Suite 420, Las Vegas, (702) 255-2022

Special Expertise: Gynecologic Surgery

Jacob Skinner, MD

Complete Care ObGYN, 1528 West Warm Springs Road, Suite 100, Henderson, (702) 213-5601

Special Expertise: Obstetrics Only

OPHTHALMOLOGY

Brian Alder, MD

Shepherd Eye Center, 6850 North Durango Drive, Suite 404, Las Vegas, (702) 731-2088

Special Expertise: Corneal Disease

Brett Brimhall, MD Brimhall Eye, 6850 North Durango Drive, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702) 263-2020

Special Expertise: LASIK Surgery, Corneal Disease, Diabetic Eye Disease/Retinopathy

Charles Calvo, MD

Meadows Eye Physicians & Surgeons, 1820 East Desert Inn Road, Las Vegas, (702) 358-0472

Special Expertise: Retinal Disorders

Joyce Cassen, MD/PhD

Shepherd Eye Center, 3575 Pecos-McLeod

Interconnect, Las Vegas, (702) 731-2088

Special Expertise: Glaucoma

Carolyn Cruvant, MD

Shepherd Eye Center, 3575 Pecos-McLeod

Interconnect, Las Vegas, (702) 731-2088

Mark Doubrava, MD

Eye Care for Nevada, The Lakes Business Park, Las Vegas, (702) 794-2020

Special Expertise: LASIK-Refractive Surgery, Corneal Disease & Surgery, Cornea Transplant

Eissa Hanna, MD Precise Sight, 653 North Town Center Drive, Suite 212, Las Vegas, (702) 982-1360

Special Expertise: Cataract-Complex, Multifocal IOL

The orthopedic specialists at Valley Hospital provide evidence-based services and minimally invasive procedures that can help you get back in the game sooner.

We can help with:

• Arthroscopic surgery

• Fracture care

• Joint replacement (CORI® Surgical System)

• Podiatric surgery (foot and ankle)

• Spine surgery (Mazor® Robotic Guidance System)

• Sports medicine

Jeffrey Hart, MD

Center For Sight, 5871 West Craig Road, Las Vegas, (702) 724-2020

Special Expertise: Dry Eye Syndrome

Rodney Hollifield, MD

Retina Consultants of Nevada, 653 North Town Center Drive, Suite 518, Las Vegas, (702) 369-0200

Special Expertise: Retina/Vitreous Surgery

Tigran Kostanyan, MD

Wellish Vision Institute, 10424 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 100, Henderson, (702) 733-2020

Special Expertise: Glaucoma, Laser Surgery, Dry Eye Syndrome

Janet Lee, MD

Shepherd Eye Center, 6850 North Durango Drive, Suite 404, Las Vegas, (702) 731-2088

Special Expertise: Glaucoma

Ethan Lin, MD

Westwood Eye, 4974 South Rainbow Boulevard, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 570-2820

Special Expertise: Cataract Surgery, LASIK Surgery

Judy Liu, MD ✚

Retina Consultants of Nevada, 6222 Durango Drive, Las Vegas, (702) 369-0200

Special Expertise: Retinal Disorders, Diabetic Eye Disease/Retinopathy

Matthew Pezda, MD

Meadows Eye Physicians & Surgeons, 2749 Sunridge Heights Parkway, Las Vegas, (702) 358-0472

Special Expertise: Diabetic Eye Disease/ Retinopathy, Retinal Disorders, Retinal Vascular Diseases

Devasis Reddy, MD

New Eyes, 2020 Wellness Way, Suite 402, Las Vegas, (702) 485-5000

Special Expertise: Cataract Surgery, Dry Eye Syndrome

Tushina Reddy, MD

Shepherd Eye Center, 6850 North Durango Drive, Suite 404, Las Vegas, (702) 731-2088

Ravindranath Reddy, MD

Shepherd Eye Center, 6850 North Durango Drive, Suite 404, Las Vegas, (702) 731-2088

Special Expertise: Eyelid Surgery/ Blepharoplasty

Adam Rovit, MD

Shepherd Eye Center, 2475 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Henderson, (702) 731-2088

Grace Shin, MD ✚

Ideal EyeCare, 6028 South Fort Apache Road, Suite 101, Las Vegas, (702) 896-2020

Special Expertise: Pediatric Ophthalmology, Glaucoma, Macular Disease/ Degeneration

Surjeet Singh, MD

Nevada Eye Physicians, 1505 Wigwam Parkway, Suite 100, Henderson, (702) 896-6043

Special Expertise: Cataract Surgery, PRK-Refractive Surgery

Matthew Swanic, MD

Las Vegas Eye Institute, 10521 Jeffreys Street, Suite 101, Henderson, (702) 816-2525

Special Expertise: Cataract Surgery, Glaucoma, LASIK-Refractive Surgery

Robert Taylor, MD

Shepherd Eye Center, 6850 North Durango Drive, Suite 404, Las Vegas, (702) 731-2088

Raymond Theodosis, MD

Shepherd Eye Center, 6850 North Durango Drive, Suite 404, Las Vegas, (702) 731-2088

Kent Wellish, MD

Wellish Vision Institute, 2110 East Flamingo Road, Suite 210, Las Vegas, (702) 733-2020

Special Expertise: Corneal Disease & Surgery, Cataract Surgery, Dry Eye Syndrome

Jason Wickens, MD

Retina Consultants of Nevada, 710 Coronado Center Drive, Suite 201, Henderson, (702) 369-0200

Special Expertise: Retina/Vitreous Surgery, Trauma

Meher Yepremyan, MD

Retina Consultants of Nevada, 653 North Town Center Drive, Suite 518, Las Vegas, (702) 369-0200

Special Expertise: Retinal Disorders

ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY

Andrew Cash, MD

Desert Institute of Spine Care, 9339 West Sunset Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 630-3472

Special Expertise: Spinal Surgery

Roger Fontes, MD

Desert Orthopaedic Center, 2800 East Desert Inn Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 731-1616

Special Expertise: Knee & Shoulder Surgery, Fractures-Complex & Non Union, Joint Replacement

Kyle Hancock, MD

Desert Orthopaedic Center, 8402 West Centennial Parkway, Las Vegas, (702) 731-1616

Special Expertise: Sports Medicine, Arthroscopic Surgery-Hip, Arthroscopic SurgeryShoulder

Chad Hanson, MD

Desert Orthopaedic Center, 8689 West Charleston Boulevard, Suite 105, Las Vegas, (702) 731-1616

Special Expertise: Arthroscopic Surgery, Hip Surgery, Elbow Surgery

Lawrence Huff, MD

Desert Orthopaedic Center, 2800 East Desert Inn Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 731-1616

Special Expertise: Shoulder Surgery-Complex, Shoulder Injuries, Elbow Replacement

Erik Kubiak, MD

University Medical Center, Orthopedic & Spine Institute, Las Vegas, (702) 383-2663

Special Expertise: Reconstructive Surgery

Michael Miao, MD

Desert Orthopaedic Center, 2800 East Desert Inn Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 731-4088

Special Expertise: Arthroscopic SurgeryShoulder, Sports Medicine, Reconstructive Surgery

Archie Perry, MD

Desert Orthopaedic Center, 2800 East Desert Inn Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 731-1616

Special Expertise: Spinal Surgery-Pediatric & Adult, Spinal SurgeryNeck, Spinal DisordersDegenerative

Deirdre Ryan, MD ✚ Children’s Bone & Spine Surgery, 1525 East Windmill Lane, Suite 201, Las Vegas, (702) 434-6920

Special Expertise: Neuromuscular Disorders, Foot Deformities

Roman Sibel, MD

Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Institute, 3175 Saint Rose Parkway, Suite 320, Henderson, (702) 997-9833

Special Expertise: Foot & Ankle Deformities, Clubfoot, Diabetic Leg/Foot

Meet Derrick Blackwell, DO

Medical Director

Cleveland Clinic Executive Health, Las Vegas

Derrick Blackwell, DO

Dr. Blackwell is a board-certified family medicine physician who has spent nearly two decades supporting patients in family medicine, urgent care, concierge medicine, sports medicine and executive health capacities. He leads with a conviction of equitable access to superior healthcare and has served on medical missions in both Haiti and Kenya.

Throughout his career, Dr. Blackwell has emphasized the patient experience. He is passionate about the patientguided perspective and has helped medical practices create a standard of care focused on developing collaborative plans for total wellness and delivering preventive medicine.

As medical director for the Executive Health program in Las Vegas, he leverages his holistic approach and varied experience to provide worldclass Cleveland Clinic care informed by vision, compassion and expertise.

Through the Executive Health program, Dr. Blackwell delivers a thorough, comprehensive evaluation designed for individuals seeking to establish a personalized plan for long-term wellness in a single visit. If desired, he can facilitate a direct connection to Cleveland Clinic’s global network of care.

Comprehensive Physicals. Personalized for Your Future. Executive Health:

A thorough evaluation in a single visit, our world-class team helps you gain a clear understanding of your current health while respecting your time. You’ll leave with a personalized plan for optimizing wellness that you can execute year-round.

The Cleveland Clinic Executive Health program is designed to:

• Identify risks early

• Address current health concerns with expert insight

• Build a personalized wellness plan for long-term health

• Connect you with top specialists

An efficient experience tailored to your health goals, Executive Health delivers the insight, expertise and personalized attention you need to maximize your health.

Currently available at Ohio and Florida locations, with care coming to Las Vegas in Fall 2026.

“I like to remind my patients that participating in our Executive Health program is an investment in your health, but the ROI is in the future. What you do now will pay dividends down the road for you and your family.”

—

Derrick Blackwell, DO

Start planning today for your future health.

clevelandclinic.org/ehknpr

Timothy Trainor, MD

Advanced Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, 7195 Advanced Way, Las Vegas, (702) 740-5327

Special Expertise: Arthroscopic Surgery, Shoulder Arthroscopic Surgery

Carl Wallis, MD

Orthopaedic Institute of Henderson, 10561 Jeffreys Street, Suite 230, Henderson, (702) 565-6565

Special Expertise: Joint Reconstruction

Troy Watson, MD

Desert Orthopaedic Center, 2800 East Desert Inn Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 731-4088

Special Expertise: Foot & Ankle Surgery

Richard Woodworth, MD

Desert Orthopaedic Center, 2800 East Desert Inn Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 731-4088

Special Expertise: Hip & Knee Surgery, Shoulder Surgery, Sports Injuries

Randall Yee, DO

Advanced Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, 7195 Advanced Way, Las Vegas, (702) 740-5327

Special Expertise: Arthroscopic Surgery, Knee Surgery

Joseph Yu, MD

Total Sports Medicine & Orthopedics, 10105 Banburry Cross Drive, Suite 445, Las Vegas, (702) 475-4390

Special Expertise: Sports Medicine, Shoulder & Knee Surgery, Cartilage Damage

OTOLARYNGOLOGY

Matthew Ng, MD

UNLV Health, Ear Nose and Throat Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 671-6480

Special Expertise:

Neurotology, Otology, Acoustic Neuroma/ Schwannoma

Sean Palacios, MD

Nevada Ear & Sinus Institute, 3692 East Sunset Road, Las Vegas, (702) 735-7668

Special Expertise: Neurotology, Skull Base Tumors, Sinus Disorders/ Surgery

Walter Schroeder, MD

Ear, Nose & Throat Consultants of Nevada, 3195 Saint Rose Parkway, Suite 210, Henderson, (702) 792-6700

Special Expertise: Head & Neck Surgery, Throat Disorders

Robert Wang, MD

UNLV Health, Ear Nose and Throat Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 671-6480

Special Expertise: Head & Neck Surgery

Randall Weingarten, MD

Southern Nevada Ear, Nose, and Throat, 10410 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 110, Henderson, (702) 617-9599

Special Expertise: Head & Neck Surgery, Sinus Disorders/Surgery

PAIN MEDICINE

Andrew Hall, MD

Relevium Pain Specialists, 6064 South Fort Apache Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 940-8007

Special Expertise: Interventional Pain Management

S. Andrew Park, MD

Desert Orthopaedic Center, 8402 West Centennial Parkway, Las Vegas, (702) 731-1616

Special Expertise: Non-Opioid Pain Management, Ultrasound, Spinal Cord Stimulation

Anthony Ruggeroli, MD

Pain Specialists of Nevada, 9159 West Flamingo Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas,

(702) 307-7700

Special Expertise: Pain-Musculoskeletal, Pain Management

Katherine Travnicek, MD

Relevium Pain Specialists, 7435 West Azure Drive, Suite 190, Las Vegas, (702) 940-8007

Special Expertise: Pain Management

PEDIATRIC CARDIOLOGY

Ruben Acherman, MD

Children’s Heart Center Nevada, 3131 La Canada Street, Suite 230, Las Vegas, (702) 732-1290

Special Expertise: Neonatal Cardiology, Fetal Echocardiography

William Castillo, MD

Children’s Heart Center Nevada, 3131 La Canada Street, Suite 230, Las Vegas, (702) 732-1290

Special Expertise: Fetal Cardiology

William Evans, MD

Children’s Heart Center Nevada, 3131 La Canada Street, Suite 230, Las Vegas, (702) 732-1290

Alvaro Galindo, MD

Children’s Heart Center Nevada, 3131 La Canada Street, Suite 230, Las Vegas, (702) 732-1290

Special Expertise: Interventional Cardiology

Gary Mayman, MD

Children’s Heart Center Nevada, 3131 La Canada Street, Suite 230, Las Vegas, (702) 732-1290

Special Expertise: Fetal Echocardiography

Abraham Rothman, MD

Children’s Heart Center Nevada, 3131 La Canada Street, Suite 230, Las Vegas, (702) 732-1290

Special Expertise: Interventional Cardiology

PEDIATRIC GASTROENTEROLOGY

Howard Baron, MD

Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition Associates, 3196 South Maryland Parkway, Suite 309, Las Vegas, (702) 791-0477

Special Expertise: Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Gastrointestinal Motility Disorders

Elizabeth Mileti, DO

Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition Associates, 3196 South Maryland Parkway, Suite 309, Las Vegas, (702) 791-0477

Rebecca Scherr, MD ✚ UNLV Health, Pediatric Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 944-2828

Special Expertise: Nutrition

PEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES

David Di John, MD UNLV Health, Pediatric Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 944-2828

Special Expertise: Vaccines

PEDIATRIC NEPHROLOGY

Michael Aigbe, MD Children’s Nephrology Clinic, 7219 West Sahara Avenue, Suite 120, Las Vegas, (702) 639-1700

Special Expertise: Kidney Disease, Hypertension

PEDIATRIC ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY

Jason Nielson, MD

Children’s Bone & Spine Surgery, 1525 East Windmill Lane, Suite 201, Las Vegas, (702) 434-6920

Special Expertise: Sports Medicine, Arthroscopic Surgery

David Stewart, MD

Cure 4 The Kids Foundation, 1 Breakthrough Way, Las Vegas, (702) 732-1493

Special Expertise: Scoliosis

PEDIATRIC PULMONOLOGY

Craig Nakamura, MD

Children’s Lung Specialists, 3196 South Maryland Parkway, Suite 209, Las Vegas, (702) 598-4411

Special Expertise: Asthma, Sleep Disorders/ Apnea, Cystic Fibrosis

David Parks, MD

UNLV Health, Pediatric Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 944-2828

Special Expertise: Lung Disease, Pneumonia

PEDIATRIC RADIOLOGY

Lisa Wong, MD

Desert Radiology, 2020 Palomino Lane, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 759-8600

PEDIATRIC SURGERY

Michael Scheidler, MD

UNLV Health, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Las Vegas, (702) 650-2500

PEDIATRIC UROLOGY

Jessica Casey, MD

Children’s Urology Associates, 6670 South Tenaya Way, Suite 180, Las Vegas, (702) 369-4999

Special Expertise: Reconstructive Surgery, Vesicoureteral Reflux (VUR), Robotic Surgery

Andrew Hwang, MD Las Vegas Pediatric Urology, 653 North Town Center Drive, Suite 407, Las Vegas, (702) 728-5686

Special Expertise: Transplant-Kidney

James Plaire, MD

Children’s Urology Associates, 6670 South Tenaya Way, Suite 180, Las Vegas, (702) 369-4999

Special Expertise: Undescended Testis, Congenital AnomaliesGenitourinary

PEDIATRICS

Zubin Amarsi, MD

Kids 360 Pediatrics, 3140 South Rainbow Boulevard, Suite 403, Las Vegas, (725) 433-8505

Special Expertise: Primary Care

James Bakerink, MD

Zarminali Pediatrics, 4785 South Durango Drive, Suite 101, Las Vegas, (702) 889-8444

Special Expertise: Primary Care, Preventive Medicine, Adolescent Medicine

Douglas Barlow, MD

Anthem Hills Pediatrics, 871 Coronado Center Drive, Suite 141, Henderson, (702) 566-2400

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Sarah Chamanara, DO

Anthem Hills Pediatrics, 871 Coronado Center Drive, Suite 141, Henderson, (702) 566-2400

Special Expertise: Primary Care, Nutrition

Blair Duddy, MD

Southwest Medical, 2704 North Tenaya Way, Suite 1500, Las Vegas, (702) 877-5199

Special Expertise: Primary Care, Nutrition

Diane Goebel, MD

St. Rose Pediatrics, 8980 West Cheyenne Avenue, Las Vegas, (702) 564-8556

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Pamela Greenspon, MD

Desert Valley Pediatrics, 10105 Banburry Cross, Suite 370, Las Vegas, (702) 260-4525

Special Expertise: Primary Care, Newborn Care

Heath Hodapp, MD

St. Rose Pediatrics, 2350 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Henderson, (702) 564-8556

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Vicki Hom, MD

Oshiro Pediatrics, 4570 Eastern Avenue, Suite 21, Las Vegas, (702) 733-6033

Special Expertise: Primary Care, Preventive Medicine, Vaccines

Margaret Hwang, MD

Southwest Medical, 2704 North Tenaya Way, Suite 1500, Las Vegas, (702) 877-5199

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Marcy Kulic, MD

Henderson Pediatrics, 1490 West Sunset Road, Suite 150, Henderson, (702) 566-0333

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Kim LaMotte-Malone, MD ✚ Anthem Hills Pediatrics, 871 Coronado Center Drive, Suite 141, Henderson, (702) 566-2400

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Thanya Lee, MD

Henderson Pediatrics, 1490 West Sunset Road, Suite 150, Henderson, (702) 566-0333

Special Expertise: Primary Care

John Lepore, DO Kidfixers Pediatrics, 10105 Banburry Cross Drive, Suite 170, Las Vegas, (702) 765-5437

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Natasa Mihic, MD

Zarminali Pediatrics, 10170 S. Eastern Ave. Suite 160, Henderson, (702) 889-8444

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Nudrat Nauman, MD

Advanced Pediatrics, 8551 West Lake Mead Boulevard, Suite 180, Las Vegas, (702) 750-1230

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Beverly Neyland, MD ✚ UNLV Health, Pediatric Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 944-2828

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Ryan Nishihara, MD

Meadows Pediatrics, 9030 West Cheyenne Avenue, Suite 120, Las Vegas, (702) 436-7337

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Ineada Okafor, MD

Anthem Hills Pediatrics, 871 Coronado Center Drive, Suite 141, Henderson, (702) 566-2400

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Andrew Oshiro, MD Oshiro Pediatrics, 4570 Eastern Avenue, Suite 21, Las Vegas, (702) 733-6033

Special Expertise: Primary Care, Preventive Medicine, Vaccines

Khursheeda Pathan, MD

Southwest Medical, 420 North Nellis Boulevard, Suite A6, Las Vegas, (702) 877-5199

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Fatehali Peera, MD

UNLV Health, Pediatric Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 944-2828

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Wesley Robertson, MD

Sunshine Valley Pediatrics, 9091 West Post Road, Las Vegas, (702) 363-3000

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Dodds Simangan, DO

UNLV Health, Pediatric Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 944-2828

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Catherine Smitha, MD

Anthem Hills Pediatrics, 5320 South Rainbow Boulevard, Suite 172, Las Vegas, (702) 566-2400

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Huynh-Truong Vu, MD

Anthem Pediatrics, 2510 West Horizon Ridge, Suite 130, Henderson, (702) 263-7800

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Laura Weidenfeld, MD ✚

Sunshine Valley Pediatrics, 9091 West Post Road, Las Vegas, (702) 363-3000

Special Expertise: Primary Care

Rabbi Zia, MD

Desert Valley Pediatrics, 10105 Banburry Cross, Suite 370, Las Vegas, (702) 260-4525

PHYSICAL MEDICINE & REHABILITATION

Andrew Kim, DO

Desert Orthopaedic Center, 2800 East Desert Inn Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 731-4088

Special Expertise: Musculoskeletal Injuries, Pain Management

Nianjun Tang, MD

Relevium Pain Specialists, 6064 South Fort Apache Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 940-8007

Special Expertise: Pain Management

PLASTIC SURGERY

Richard Baynosa, MD

UNLV Health, Plastic Surgery Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 671-5110

Special Expertise: Breast Cosmetic & Reconstructive Surgery

John Brosious, MD

Vegas Plastic Surgery Institute, 341 North Buffalo Drive, Suite B, Las Vegas, (702) 727-8500

Special Expertise: Cosmetic & Reconstructive Surgery, LGBTQ+ Health

Hayley Brown, MD ✚

Desert Hills Plastic Surgery Center, 10001 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 406, Henderson, (702) 260-7707

Special Expertise: Breast Cosmetic Surgery

Arthur Cambeiro, MD

SurgiSpa, 2370 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 130, Henderson, (702) 566-8300

Special Expertise: Facelift, CoolSculpting, Breast Augmentation

Christopher Costa, MD

Platinum Plastic Surgery, 5824 South Durango Drive, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702) 331-1178

Special Expertise: Facelift, Fillers & Injectables, Brow Lift

Michael Edwards, MD

Plastic Surgery Vegas, 8530 West Sunset Road, Suite 130, Las Vegas, (702) 822-2100

Special Expertise: Breast Reconstruction & Augmentation

Joshua Goldman, MD

Vegas Plastic Surgery Institute, 341 North Buffalo Drive, Suite B, Las Vegas, (702) 727-8500

Special Expertise:

Breast Reconstruction, Microsurgery, TraumaReconstructive Plastic Surgery

W. Tracy Hankins, MD

Hankins & Sohn Plastic Surgery Associates, 60 North Pecos Road, Henderson, (702) 948-7595

Special Expertise: Cosmetic Surgery-Face & Breast

Terrence Higgins, MD

Plastic Surgery Vegas, 8530 West Sunset Road, Suite 130, Las Vegas, (702) 822-2100

Special Expertise: Microsurgery

John Menezes, MD

UNLV Health, Plastic Surgery Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 671-5110

Special Expertise: Craniofacial Surgery

Stephen Miller, MD 8435 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 369-1001

Special Expertise: Cosmetic Surgery-Face & Breast, Hair Restoration/ Transplant

John Minoli, MD

Minoli Plastic Surgery, 5735 South Fort Apache Road, Suite B, Las Vegas, (702) 459-3223

Special Expertise: Facial Plastic Surgery, Eyelid Surgery/Blepharoplasty

Brandon Reynolds, MD

Reynolds Plastic Surgery, 7175 North Durango Drive, Suite 230, Las Vegas, (702) 410-9800

Special Expertise: Breast Cosmetic & Reconstructive Surgery, Cosmetic Surgery-Face & Body, Skin Cancer Reconstruction

Jeffrey Roth, MD

Las Vegas Plastic Surgery, 6140 South Fort Apache Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 425-5260

Special Expertise: Botox, Breast Cosmetic Surgery, CoolSculpting

Andrew Silver, MD

Plastic Surgery Vegas, 8530 West Sunset Road, Suite 130, Las Vegas, (702) 822-2100

Mehdi Sina, MD

Vegas Facial Plastics, 9418 West Lake Mead Boulevard, Las Vegas, (702) 904-9767

Special Expertise: Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Fillers & Injectables

Lane Smith, MD

Smith Plastic Surgery, 7650 West Sahara Avenue, Las Vegas, (702) 838-2455

Special Expertise: Breast Augmentation, Liposuction & Body Contouring, CoolSculpting

Samuel Sohn, MD

Hankins & Sohn Plastic Surgery Associates, 60 North Pecos Road, Henderson, (702) 948-7595

Special Expertise: Cosmetic Surgery-Breast, Cosmetic & Reconstructive Surgery, Botox

PSYCHIATRY

Alison Netski, MD ✚ UNLV Health, Mojave Counseling, Las Vegas, (702) 253-0818

Special Expertise: Psychosomatic Disorders, ADD/ADHD, Psychiatry in Physical Illness

PULMONARY DISEASE

Nisarg Changawala, MD

Lung Center of Nevada, 653 North Town Center Drive, Suite 604, Las Vegas, (702) 737-5864

Special Expertise: Emphysema, Sleep Medicine

Meet Our Las Vegas-Based Cleveland Clinic

Concierge Medicine Doctors

Erine Erickson, MD

A board-certified internal medicine physician with more than 20 years of experience caring for patients in traditional and concierge practices, Erine Erickson, MD, has held senior leadership roles in the nation’s largest nonprofit health system, advancing quality, safety and evidence-based care delivery. She served with distinction in the United States Army, where she received a Commendation Medal for her leadership.

Since establishing Cleveland Clinic’s Concierge practice in Las Vegas in 2025, Dr. Erickson has developed strong, trusted relationships with highly respected local specialists who share her thoughtful, patient-centered approach, allowing her to guide patients confidently through complex medical decisions locally and across the broader Cleveland Clinic system. clevelandclinic.org/erickson

Robert Costa-Allen, MD

A board-certified internal medicine physician with more than 30 years of experience spanning bedside care, executive leadership and system-wide quality improvement, Dr. Costa-Allen’s experience extends internationally, including overseeing clinical operations and consulting on healthcare systems in the Middle East and Asia.

Most recently, he has held senior clinical and operational roles across Nevada’s major health systems. His deep understanding of the region’s healthcare landscape complements Cleveland Clinic’s mission and our personalized Concierge Medicine program. clevelandclinic.org/costa-allen

Concierge

Medicine

Offering premium primary care in Las Vegas designed to prioritize your health and time.

Our approach emphasizes prevention, long-term wellness and personalized, proactive, year-round health management tailored to your unique needs and goals.

Now is the time to invest in your well-being and establish an ongoing care plan. Your Concierge Medicine membership includes:

• 24/7 provider availability*

•Same or next-day primary care appointments on most weekdays

•Chronic disease management

•Seamless coordination of specialty care

•An annual comprehensive health assessment

Request a no-obligation, no-cost meet-and-greet with our Las Vegas physicians. clevelandclinic.org/cmknpr

For Every Care in the World

*

John Collier, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 653 North Town Center Drive, Suite 604, Las Vegas, (702) 737-5864

Special Expertise: Critical Care, Sleep Disorders/Apnea

Joaquim Tavares, MD

United Critical Care, 6040 South Fort Apache Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 476-4900

Special Expertise: Asthma, Critical Care, Lung Cancer

George Tu, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 653 North Town Center Drive, Suite 604, Las Vegas, (702) 737-5864

Special Expertise: Sleep Disorders/Apnea, Pulmonary Fibrosis

John Wojcik, MD

Lung Center of Nevada, 653 North Town Center Drive, Suite 604, Las Vegas, (702) 737-5864

Special Expertise: Lung Cancer, Sleep Medicine

RADIATION ONCOLOGY

Michael Anderson, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 10001 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 108, Henderson, (702) 952-3444

Special Expertise: Head & Neck Cancer, Brachytherapy, Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT)

Andrew Cohen, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada Northwest, 7445 Peak Drive, Las Vegas, (702) 952-2140

Special Expertise:

Breast Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Image Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT)

Dan Curtis, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 655 North Town Center Drive, Las Vegas, (702) 233-2200

Special Expertise: Prostate Cancer, Head & Neck Cancer, Skin Cancer

Farzaneh Farzin, MD ✚

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 3730 South Eastern Avenue, Las Vegas, (702) 952-3400

Special Expertise: Breast Cancer, Stereotactic Radiosurgery

Samual Francis, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 3730 South Eastern Avenue, Las Vegas, (702) 952-3400

Special Expertise:

External Beam Radiation Therapy, Image Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT)

Matthew Schwartz, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 10001 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 108, Henderson, (702) 952-3444

Special Expertise: Breast Cancer, Lung Cancer, Prostate Cancer

Michael Sinopoli, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada Northwest, 7445 Peak Drive, Las Vegas, (702) 952-2140

Special Expertise: Prostate Cancer, Breast Cancer, Stereotactic Radiosurgery

Paul Treadwell, MD

Oncology Las Vegas, 2851 North Tenaya Way, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 243-3340

Special Expertise: Pediatric Cancers, Gynecologic Cancers, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

Wei-Gang Wang, MD

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 9280 West Sunset Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 952-1251

REPRODUCTIVE ENDOCRINOLOGY/ INFERTILITY

Jeffrey Fisch, MD

Green Valley Fertility Partners, 2950 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Henderson, (702) 722-2229

Special Expertise: Infertility-IVF

Bruce Shapiro, MD/PhD

Fertility Center of Las Vegas, 5365 South Durango Drive, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 254-1777

Special Expertise: Infertility-IVF

RHEUMATOLOGY

Johnson Kay, DO

Southwest Medical, 4750 West Oakley Boulevard, Suite 3A, Las Vegas, (702) 877-5199

Special Expertise: Autoimmune Disease, Lupus/SLE, Sjogren’s Syndrome

Dodji Modjinou, MD

Advanced Rheumatology Associates of Nevada, 861 Coronado Center Drive, Suite 220, Henderson, (702) 984-3776

Special Expertise: Arthritis

Ewa Olech, MD ✚

Ewa Olech Rheumatology Consultants, 7200 Cathedral Rock Drive, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702) 489-4838

Special Expertise: Rheumatoid Arthritis

Elham Taherian, MD

Ameli / Dadourian Medicine, 400 South Rampart Boulevard, Suite 240, Las Vegas, (702) 906-1100

Special Expertise: Arthritis

MEMBER-PRICED TICKETS TO

HOTTEST SHOWS

SPORTS MEDICINE

Jessica Zarndt, DO ✚

Desert Orthopaedic Center, 2800 East Desert Inn Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702) 731-1616

Special Expertise: Primary Care Sports Medicine, Sports Injuries, Orthopaedics-Non Surgical

SURGERY

Peter Caravella, MD

Las Vegas Surgery Associates, 8930 West Sunset Road, Suite 300, Las Vegas, (702) 258-7788

Special Expertise: Vascular Surgery

James Curry, MD

Desert West Surgery, 7200 Cathedral Rock Drive, Suite 250, Las Vegas, (702) 383-4040

Special Expertise: Robotic Surgery, Gallbladder Surgery, Colon & Rectal Surgery

Sean Dort, MD

Southern Nevada Surgery Specialists, 10001 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 310, Henderson, (702) 914-2420

Fikre Mengistu, MD

Southern Nevada Surgery Specialists, 10001 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 310, Henderson, (702) 914-2420

Special Expertise: General Surgery

Lee Reese, MD

Desert West Surgery, 7200 Cathedral Rock Drive, Suite 250, Las Vegas, (702) 383-4040

Special Expertise: Robotic Surgery, Vein Disorders, Breast Cancer

Irwin Simon, MD

Vegas Valley Vein Institute, 2450 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 100, Henderson, (702) 341-7608

Special Expertise: Minimally Invasive Vascular Surgery, Varicose Veins, Hair Restoration/Transplant

Charles St. Hill, MD

UNLV Health, Department of Surgery, Las Vegas, (702) 671-5150

Special Expertise: Surgical Oncology, Hernia

Margaret Terhar, MD ✚

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 1505 Wigwam Parkway, Suite 130, Henderson, (702) 369-6008

Special Expertise: Breast Disease

Timothy Tollestrup, MD

3035 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 120, Henderson, (702) 666-0463

Special Expertise: Peripheral Nerve Surgery

SURGICAL ONCOLOGY

Jennifer Baynosa, MD ✚

UNLV Health, Department of Surgery, Las Vegas, (702) 671-5150

Special Expertise: Breast Cancer & Surgery

Souzan El-Eid, MD ✚

Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, 653 North Town Center Drive, Suite 402, Las Vegas, (702) 255-1133

Special Expertise: Breast Cancer & Surgery

Daniel Kirgan, MD

UNLV Health, Department of Surgery, Las Vegas, (702) 671-5150

Special Expertise: Breast Cancer & Surgery, Sarcoma, Pancreatic & Biliary Surgery

THORACIC & CARDIAC SURGERY

Neel Dhudshia, MD

Dignity Health Medical Group, 10001 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 201, Henderson, (702) 616-5700

Special Expertise: Cardiothoracic Surgery

Michael Wood, MD

Dignity Health , Cardiovascular Thoracic Surgery Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 675-3240

Special Expertise: Cardiac Surgery-Adult, Thoracic Aortic Surgery, Heart Valve Surgery-Mitral

UROGYNECOLOGY/ FEMALE PELVIC MEDICINE & RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY

Geoffrey Hsieh, MD Women’s Cancer Center of Nevada, 2050 Pinto Lane, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702) 693-6870

Special Expertise: Urogynecology, Incontinence-Urinary, Pelvic Organ Prolapse Repair

UROLOGY

Joseph Candela, MD

Las Vegas Urology, 7500 Smoke Ranch Road, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702) 385-4342

Special Expertise: Urology-Female

Sheldon Freedman, MD 653 North Town Center Drive, Suite 308, Las Vegas, (702) 732-0282

Special Expertise: Erectile Dysfunction, Kidney Stones, Prostate Cancer

Vijay Goli, MD

Las Vegas Urology, 7150 West Sunset Road, Suite 202B, Las Vegas, (702) 385-4342

Special Expertise: Kidney Stones, Minimally Invasive Surgery, Prostate Cancer-Cryosurgery

O. Alex Lesani, MD

Las Vegas Urology, 7150 West Sunset Road, Suite 201A, Las Vegas, (702) 385-4342

Special Expertise: Reconstructive Surgery, Urinary Reconstruction

Lawrence Newman, MD

Las Vegas Urology, 7150 West Sunset Road, Suite 201A, Las Vegas, (702) 385-4342

Special Expertise: Bladder Surgery, Erectile Dysfunction, Kidney Stones

Michael Verni, MD Urology Center, 8530 West Sunset Road, Suite 250, Las Vegas, (702) 212-3428

Special Expertise: Pediatric Urology

Jason Zommick, MD Urology Specialists of Nevada, 58 North Pecos Road, Henderson, (702) 877-0814

Special Expertise: Prostate Benign Disease (BPH)

VASCULAR & INTERVENTIONAL RADIOLOGY

Aaron Peterson, MD Red Rock Radiology Associates, Endovascular Clinic, Las Vegas, (702) 304-8135

VASCULAR SURGERY

Bruce Hirschfeld, MD Las Vegas Surgery Associates, 8930 West Sunset Road, Suite 300, Las Vegas, (702) 258-7788

Special Expertise: Endovascular Surgery

2026 TOP DENTISTS

About the 2026 topDentists™ selection process

This is the question we've asked thousands of dentists to help us determine who the topDentists should be. Dentists and specialists are asked to take into consideration years of experience, continuing education, manner with patients, use of new techniques and technologies and of course physical results.

The nomination pool of dentists consists of dentists listed online with the American Dental Association, as well as all dentists listed online with their local dental societies, thus allowing virtually every dentist the opportunity to participate. Dentists are also given the opportunity to nominate other dentists that they feel should be included in our list. Respondents are asked to put aside any personal bias or political motivations and to use only their knowledge of their peer's work when evaluating the other nominees.

"IF YOU HAD A PATIENT IN NEED OF A DENTIST, WHICH DENTIST WOULD YOU REFER THEM TO?"

Voters are asked to individually evaluate the practitioners on their ballot whose work they are familiar with. Once the balloting is completed, the scores are compiled and then averaged. The numerical average required for inclusion varies depending on the average for all the nominees within the specialty and the geographic area. Borderline cases are given a careful consideration by the editors. Voting characteristics and comments are taken into consideration while making decisions. Past awards a dentist has received as well as status in various dental academies can play a factor in our decision.

Once the decisions have been finalized, the included dentists are checked against state dental boards for disciplinary actions to make sure they have an active license and are in good standing with the board. Then letters of congratulations are sent to all the listed dentists.

Of-course there are many fine dentists who are not included in this representative list. It is intended as a sampling of the great body of talent in the field of dentistry in the United States. A dentist’s inclusion on our list is based on the subjective judgments of his or her fellow dentists. While it is true that the lists may at times disproportionately reward visibility or popularity, we remain confident that our polling methodology largely corrects for any biases and that these lists continue to represent the most reliable, accurate, and useful list of dentists available anywhere.

DENTAL ANESTHESIOLOGY

Amanda J. Okundaye 9500 West Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, (310)-486-6656

ENDODONTICS

Benjamin J. Barborka

Las Vegas Endodontics, 6655 West Sahara Avenue, Suite A-106, Las Vegas, (702)-876-5800

W. Scott Biggs

Micro Endodontics of Las Vegas, 7120 Smoke Ranch Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-463-5000

Matthew O. Cox

Cox and Tay Endodontics, 660 South Green Valley Parkway, Suite 120, Henderson, (702)-492-6688

Chase Crowley Endodontics of Las Vegas, 9750 Covington Cross Drive, Suite 150, Las Vegas, (702)-878-8584

David C. Fife

Fife & Steffen Endodontics, 1975 Village Center Circle, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702)-360-2122

Adam Gatan

Seven Hills Endodontics & Microsurgery Center, 2810 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 200, Henderson, (702)-384-0053

Chad R. Hansen

Desert Ridge Endodontics, 4450 North Tenaya Way, Suite 240, Las Vegas, (702)-536-3636

Jason T. Morris

Shipp Endodontics, 9053 South Pecos Road, Suite 3000, Henderson, (702)-798-0911

Daniel I. Shalev

Nevada Endodontics, 2510 Wigwam Parkway, Suite 200, Henderson, (702)-263-2000

Guided weight loss success. Bariatric surgery expertise.

At Dignity Health Bariatrics, we partner with physicians to provide comprehensive, evidence-based weight loss solutions that transform patients' lives. Our weight loss program delivers personalized strategies, empowering patients every step of the way to achieve lasting success.

Services we o er

• Medical Weight Loss

• Sleeve Gastrectomy

• Gastric Bypass

• Duodenal Switch/SADI-S

• Revision Surgeries

Scan to learn more or to make a referral call 702.675.3240

Meet our expert team of surgeons

St. Rose Dominican, San Martín Hospital is an accredited Metabolic and Bariatric Center by the MBSAQIP and Surgical Quality Partner of the ACS.

Ryan C. Shipp

Shipp Endodontics, 9053 South Pecos Road, Suite 3000, Henderson, (702)-798-0911

Joshua Steffen Fife & Steffen Endodontics, 1975 Village Center Circle, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702)-360-2122

Ronney Tay

Cox and Tay Endodontics, 660 South Green Valley Parkway, Suite 120, Henderson, (702)-492-6688

GENERAL DENTISTRY

Christine C. Ancajas

UNLV School of Dental Medicine, 4505 South Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, (702)-774-2522

Stanley S. Askew

Island Dental Center, 9750 Covington Cross Drive, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-341-7979

Steven A. Avena

3117 West Charleston Boulevard, Las Vegas, (702)-384-1210

Stacie Baalbaky

Elite Family Dental, 7835 South Rainbow Boulevard, Suite 28, Las Vegas, (702)-898-8448

Will Baalbaky

Elite Family Dental, 7835 South Rainbow Boulevard, Suite 28, Las Vegas, (702)-898-8448

Peter S. Balle

Vegas Choice Dental, 2801 West Charleston Boulevard, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-710-9252

Derryl R. Brian

Nevada Trails Dental, 7575 South Rainbow Boulevard, Suite 101, Las Vegas, (702)-367-3700

Pamela G. Caggiano

321 North Pecos Road, Suite 100, Henderson, (702)-732-7878

Colin M. Campbell

Saint Rose Family & Cosmetic Dentistry, 780 Coronado Center Drive, Suite 110, Henderson, (702)-387-5900

Sandra Chan

Moore Family Dentistry, 10624 South Eastern Avenue, Suite N, Henderson, (702)-407-6700

Guy L. Chisteckoff

Island Smiles Cosmetic & Family Dentistry, 8940 South Maryland Parkway, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-270-6501

Tyler Miller Christensen

Christensen Dental, 10521 Jeffery Street, Suite 200, Henderson, (702)-331-2121

Chris S. Cozine

8579 South Eastern Avenue, Suite A, Las Vegas, (702)-739-8289

Jay Denton

Centennial Hills Dental Care, 7425 West Azure Drive, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702)-878-4397

Jason L. Downey

8876 Spanish Ridge Avenue, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-871-4903

Mark D. Edington

Modern Dental Care, 9895 South Maryland Parkway, Suite A, Las Vegas, (702)-372-4069

Barton H. Foutz

Foutz Family Dentistry, 2510 Wigwam Parkway, Suite 100, Henderson, (702)-792-5929

John T. Gallob

UNLV School of Dental Medicine, 1700 West Charleston Boulevard, Building D, Las Vegas, (702)-671-5175

Sirintra Gatan

Aspire Dental, 880 Sever Hills Drive, Suite 130, Henderson, (725)-291-2060

Amy A. Gearin

Gearin Dentistry, 1975 Village Center Circle, Suite 160, Las Vegas, (702)-367-4040

Civon Gewelber

Roseman Dental, One Breakthrough Way, Suite 3218, Las Vegas, (702)-968-5222

Heeyup Ghim

Black Mountain Dental, 1475 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 100, Henderson, (702)-564-4498

Irwan T. Goh

Smiles by Goh, 2653 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 110, Henderson, (702)-732-3754

Steven L. Hardy

Paradise Family Dental, 6825 Aliante Parkway, North Las Vegas, (702)-294-2739

Gregory M. Heideman

Luth & Heideman Dental Care, 6950 West Smoke Ranch Road, Suite 150, Las Vegas, (702)-304-1902

Gregg C. Hendrickson

Comprehensive Dental Care, 2790 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 100, Henderson, (702)-735-3284

Thomas P. Keating

Keating Dental, 880 Seven Hills Drive, Suite 240, Henderson, (702)-454-8855

Lance Jungmin Kim 6900 North Pecos Road, Suite 2A130, North Las Vegas, (702)-791-9019

William P. Leavitt

UNLV School of Dental Medicine, 1001 Shadow Lane, Las Vegas, (702)-774-2641

Ton V. Lee

Summerlin Smiles, 9525 West Russell Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-579-7645

Nicholas E. Lords

Rainbow Park Dental, 2950 South Rainbow Boulevard, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702)-227-6510

Spencer Luth Luth & Heideman Dental Care, 6950 West Smoke Ranch Road, Suite 150, Las Vegas, (702)-304-1902

Kent A. Lysgaard

Lysgaard Dental, 2911 North Tenaya Way, Suite 101, Las Vegas, (702)-360-9061

David L. Mahon

Siena Dental, 10075 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 107, Henderson, (702)-567-0000

Ronald R. Marshall 6891 West Charleston Boulevard, Las Vegas, (702)-255-6768

Nina Mirzayan

Adaven Children’s Dentistry, 2843 Saint Rose Parkway, Suite 100, Henderson, (702)-492-1955

E. Orlando Morantes

A Great Smile Dental, 3412 North Buffalo Drive, Las Vegas, (702)-794-0820

Michael Most

Most Dental, 6392 Spring Mountain Road, Las Vegas, (702)-871-0304

James E. Nassar

Smile Design Center, 10120 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 375, Henderson, (702)-361-9611

Johnny E. Nassar

Smile Design Center, 10120 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 375, Henderson, (702)-361-9611

Jorge Paez

Nevada Dental Esthetics, 5864 South Durango Drive, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-744-8007

Mohini Patel

Aspiring Smiles Dental and Braces, 3211 North Tenaya Way, Suite 122, Las Vegas, (702)-508-6699

Marielaina Perrone

2551 North Green Valley Parkway, Suite A-405, Henderson, (702)-458-2929

James B. Polley

1875 Village Center Circle, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702)-873-0324

Richard A. Racanelli

Stunning Smiles of Las Vegas, 6410 Medical Center Street, Suite B, Las Vegas, (702)-736-0016

Craig R. Rose

Rose Family Dentistry, 8490 South Eastern Avenue, Suite C, Las Vegas, (702)-914-0000

Douglas D. Sandquist

Sandquist Dentistry, 2650 Lake Sahara Drive, Suite 160, Las Vegas, (702)-734-0776

Tammy Sarles

Desert Breeze Dental, 8650 Spring Mountain Road, Suite 101, Las Vegas, (702)-869-0032

Nathan D. Schwartz

Henderson Family Dentistry, 537 South Boulder Highway, Henderson, (702)-564-2526

Luke Simonis

Centennial Hills Dental Care, 7425 West Azure Drive, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702)-878-4397

Stephen W. Spelman Willow Springs Dental, 3450 South Hualapai Way, Las Vegas, (702)-871-6044

Bradley S. Strong 2931 North Tenaya Way, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702)-242-3800

Michael J. Tomita

Island Dental Center, 9750 Covington Cross Drive, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-341-7979

Karen T. Tran

Lakeview Dental, 2291 South Fort Apache Road, Suite 104, Las Vegas, (702)-869-0001

Michael J. Urban

9061 West Post Road, Las Vegas, (702)-434-4800

Michael Paul Webberson

UNLV School of Dental Medicine, 4505 South Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, (702)-774-2644

Johnathan White

Aesthetic Dentistry, 8084 West Sahara Avenue, Suite G, Las Vegas, (702)-823-3000

Behnam Yaghmai

A Great Smile Dental, 3412 North Buffalo Drive, Las Vegas, (702)-804-5154

ORAL AND MAXILLOFACIAL SURGERY

Mark I. Degen

Red Rock Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Centre, 6140 South Fort Apache Road, Suite 120, Las Vegas, (702)-253-9090

Jesse J. Falk

Canyon Oral & Facial Surgery, 6200 North Durango Drive, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-660-5574

Ryan Gibson

Southern Nevada Dental Implants & Oral Surgery, 670 South Green Valley Parkway, Suite 115, Henderson, (702)-685-3700

Steve J. Huang

Henderson Oral Surgery & Dental Implant Center, 2835 Saint Rose Parkway, Suite 100, Henderson, (725)-213-6143

Gregory J. Hunter

Nevada Oral & Facial Surgery, 6950 Smoke Ranch Road, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702)-329-7554

Brendan G. Johnson

Nevada Oral & Facial Surgery, 6950 Smoke Ranch Road, Suite 200, Las Vegas, (702)-329-7554

Katherine A. Keeley

2649 Wigwam Parkway, Suite 102, Henderson, (702)-263-9339

Matthew M. Kikuchi

Kikuchi Oral Surgery & Dental Implant Center, 5765 South Fort Apache Road, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702)-876-6337

Bryce Leavitt

Gibson and Leavitt Oral & Maxillofacial & Implant Surgery, 670 South Green Valley Parkway, Suite 115, Henderson, (702)-685-3700

Carlos H. Letelier

The Center for Oral Surgery of Las Vegas, 10115 West Twain Avenue, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-367-6666

Jeff E. Moxley

Moxley Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, 3663 East Sunset Road, Suite 403, Las Vegas, (702)-898-8350

ORAL PATHOLOGY

Moni Ahmadian

UNLV School of Dental Medicine, 4505 South Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, (702)-774-2616

ORTHODONTICS

Brian Chamberlain

Super Smile Orthodontics, 7090 North Durango Drive, Suite 120, Las Vegas, (702)-645-5100

David A. Chenin

Chenin Orthodontic Group, 10730 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 100, Henderson, (702)-735-1010

Eryn E. Ence

Ence Orthodontics, 8490 South Eastern Avenue, Suite A, Las Vegas, (702)-260-8241

Jedediah M. Feller

Feller Orthodontics, 2871 North Tenaya Way, Las Vegas, (702)-341-8668

Michael C. Gardner

Leaver & Gardner Orthodontics, 6005 South Fort Apache, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-291-9872

John C. Griffiths

Las Vegas Braces, 8710 West Charleston Boulevard, Suite 150, Las Vegas, (702)-256-7846

Nadim Guirguis

Mountain View Orthodontics, 1811 South Rainbow Boulevard, Suite 109, Las Vegas, (702)-785-0500

R. Cree Hamilton

Hamilton & Manuele Orthodontics, 401 North Buffalo Drive, Suite 220, Las Vegas, (702)-243-3300

Blaine R. Hansen

Hansen Miller Orthodontics, 3600 North Buffalo Drive, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702)-568-1600

Scott E. Leaver

Leaver & Gardner Orthodontics, 6005 South Fort Apache, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-878-0764

Jeremy S. Manuele

Hamilton & Manuele Orthodontics, 401 North Buffalo Drive, Suite 220, Las Vegas, (702)-243-3300

Brady Okuda

Okuda Orthodontics, 1701 North Green Valley Parkway, Suite 1, Henderson, (702)-827-4058

Glen Roberson

Henderson Kids’ Dentistry & Orthodontics, 382 West Lake Mead Parkway, Suite 130, Henderson, (702)-558-8543

Alana K. Saxe

Saxe Orthodontics, 3555 South Town Center Drive, Suite 104, Las Vegas, (702)-541-7070

Douglas K. Simister

Pure Orthodontics, 9859 West Deer Springs Way, Suite 150, Las Vegas, (702)-445-6555

Robert H. Thalgott

Chenin Orthodontic Group, 1945 Village Center Circle, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702)-364-5100

Mark Truman

Truman Orthodontics, 10000 West Sahara, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702)-360-9000

Zachary B. Truman

Truman Orthodontics, 10855 South Eastern Avenue, Henderson, (702)-360-9000

Richard Webster

Webster Orthodontics, 7603 Grand Teton Drive, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702)-819-9921

Tracy D. Wyatt

Hansen Miller Orthodontics, 1909 North Green Valley Parkway, Henderson, (702)-897-1611

PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY

Bryan Q. Bui

CavityBusters, 5980 South Jones Boulevard, Las Vegas, (702)-362-5437

Ryan S. Bybee

The Kid’s Dentist, 375 North Stephanie Street, Suite 211, Henderson, (702)-454-1008

Alice P. Chen

Roseman University College of Dental Medicine, One Breakthrough Way, Las Vegas, (702)-968-5222

Jeffrey A. Cox

Anthem Pediatric Dentistry, 10400 South Eastern Avenue, Henderson, (702)-531-5437

Chad W. Ellsworth

Anthem Pediatric Dentistry, 10400 South Eastern Avenue, Henderson, (702)-531-5437

Jon P. Galea

Pediatric Dental Care Associates, 8981 West Sahara Avenue, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702)-254-4220

Amy L. Goodwin

Las Vegas Modern Dentistry and Orthodontics, 7171 West Craig Road, Suite 102, Las Vegas, (702)-655-0331

Ashley E. Hoban

Summerlin Pediatric Dentistry, 635 North Town Center Drive, Suite 606, Las Vegas, (702)-838-9013

Chandler Hyer

Mountain’s Edge Pediatric Dentistry, 8520 Blue Diamond Road, Suite 130, Las Vegas, (702)-463-4042

Todd S. Milne

Children’s Dental Center, 2085 Village Center Circle, Suite 120, Las Vegas, (702)-240-5437

Joshua L. Saxe

A Childrens Dentist, 8710 West Charleston Boulevard, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-255-0133

Michael D. Saxe

A Childrens Dentist, 700 East Silverado Ranch Boulevard, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702)-430-6600

Maryam Sina

Dentistry for Children, 2551 North Green Valley Parkway, Suite 400A, Henderson, (702)-342-0075

Levi J. Sorenson

Sorenson Pediatric Dentistry, 5745 South Fort Apache Road, Las Vegas, (702)-586-4347

Keaton Tomlin

Mountain West Dental Specialists, 6970 South Cimarron Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-957-1004

PERIODONTICS

Edilberto De Andrade

Anthem Periodontics and Dental Implants, 2610 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, Suite 202, Henderson, (702)-270-4600

Ryan S. Gifford Periodontics Limited, 3811 West Charleston Boulevard, Suite 201, Las Vegas, (702)-259-1943

Allen W. Huang Significance Dental Specialists, 6018 South Fort Apache Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-547-9977

Dale C. Irving Periodontics Limited, 70 North Pecos Road, Suite B, Henderson, (702)-750-9875

Curry H. Leavitt

Red Rock Periodontics & Implantology, 7475 West Sahara Avenue, Suite 101, Las Vegas, (702)-834-8900

Brian Mantor Periodontics Limited, 3811 West Charleston Boulevard, Suite 201, Las Vegas, (702)-500-1742

James K. Rogers Canyon Ridge Periodontics, 3575 South Town Center Drive, Suite 110, Las Vegas, (702)-966-0300

Dane T. Swenson Swenson Periodontics & Implant Dentistry, 1825 Village Center Circle, Suite 150, Las Vegas, (702)-660-0024

David J. Trylovich Periodontics Limited, 851 South Rampart Boulevard, Suite 240, Las Vegas, (702)-508-6714

Robin Weltman

UNLV School of Dental Medicine, 4505 South Maryland Parkway, MC 7416, Las Vegas, (702)-774-2688

PROSTHODONTICS

Evangeline Chen

Greater Las Vegas Dental, 8867 West Flamingo Road, Suite 100, Las Vegas, (702)-880-5858

Marco T. Padilla

Clear Choice Las Vegas, 6460 Medical Center Street, Suite 300, Las Vegas, (702)-430-2372

Steven L. Rhodes

501 South Rancho Drive, Suite E-29, Las Vegas, (702)-384-4896

This list is excerpted from the 2026 topDentists™ list, which includes listings for nearly 150 dentists and specialists in the Las Vegas Area. For more information call 706-364-0853; write P.O. Box 970, Augusta, GA 30903; email help@usatopdentists.com or visit www.usatopdentists. com. topDentists has used its best efforts in assembling material for this list but does not warrant that the information contained herein is complete or accurate, and does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions herein whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. Copyright 2011-2026 by topDentists, LLC, Augusta, GA. All rights reserved. This list, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission. No commercial use of the information in this list may be made without permission of topDentists, LLC. No fees may be charged, directly or indirectly, for the use of the information in this list without permission.

Heart and lung care that’s with you for every beat.

At Dignity Health Medical Group Nevada, our cardiovascular and thoracic experts are here to help you keep pace with your plans. Our team of board-certified surgeons offer comprehensive diagnosis and advanced surgical procedures for heart, vascular, and lung health. So if you have concerns and need specialized treatment, schedule an appointment today. Learn more at DignityHealth.org/NVCVT.

Michael Wood, MD, FACS

Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgeon

Chan Jerome “CJ” Park, MD, PhD Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgeon

Neel V. Dhudshia, MD Cardiovascular & Thoracic

Surgeon

Bruce

M. Toporoff, MD Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgeon

Dignity Health Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery

7190 S. Cimarron Rd. Las Vegas, NV 89113 (702)675-3240

10001 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. 201 Henderson, NV 89052 (702)616-5700

Scan the QR code for more information.

MEDICAL PROFILES

JORDAN SOPER, PSYD, ABPP, CST

Dr. Jordan Soper is a Licensed Psychologist, Board Certified in Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology, AASECT Certified Sex Therapist, and Owner of The Center for Sexual Health and Wellness in Las Vegas, NV. Dr. Soper’s areas of expertise include evidencebased treatment for sexual health and functioning disorders, anxiety, and trauma with diverse populations including military Veterans, first responders, police officers, members of the LGBTQ+ community, young professionals, participants in geek/ nerd culture, sexual assault survivors, and members of the BDSM/Kink/Fetish community. Dr. Soper is a contributor to a number of online publications, creates and produces multimedia educational content, speaker and educator at universities and national conferences, and clinical supervisor. She is passionate about mental health, education, training, advocacy, and using humor to decrease shame and stigma around mental and sexual health concerns. Therapy, consultation, and supervision services are available at CSHAW.com.

CENTER FOR SEXUAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS

880 SEVEN HILLS DRIVE SUITE 250 HENDERSON, NV 89052

702-587-1573

CSHAW.COM

DR. DODJI V. MODJINOU

ADVANCED RHEUMATOLOGY ASSOCIATES OF NEVADA COMPETENCY, COMPASSION, INTEGRITY

Life with a chronic condition can be challenging, but the team at Advanced Rheumatology Associates of Nevada is here to help ... We believe in more than just managing symptoms. It is our mission to provide the optimum in rheumatologic care utilizing evidenced-based practices to quickly diagnose, advise and treat a host of chronic conditions. Our practice is dedicated to a patient-centric approach to care. We evaluate a patient’s physical and emotional needs, utilizing a holistic approach to a variety of rheumatologic conditions, including all members of the team to support and complement what is offered medically. As a convenience to our patients, ARAN also offers inhouse infusion treatments including biologics for rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases.

Dedicated to your health, ARAN accepts most major insurances. Please note that our office requires a referral from your PCP or other practitioners involved in your care.

Languages spoken in our office are English, French, Spanish and various West African languages.

At ARAN, you’ll be under the care of Dr. Modjinou, a board-certified rheumatologist who completed a sought-after fellowship at the New York University/Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City. We invite you to join us on your journey to wellness and become part of the ARAN family where competency, compassion, and integrity are our core values.

CONDITIONS TREATED

• RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

• OSTEOARTHRITIS

• PSORIATIC ARTHRITIS

• LUPUS

• ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS

• SJOGREN’S SYNDROME

• VASCULITIS

• GOUT

ADVANCED RHEUMATOLOGY ASSOCIATES OF NEVADA

861 CORONADO CENTER DRIVE, SUITE 220, HENDERSON, NV 89052

PHONE: 702.984.3776

FAX: 725.228.5264

ADVANCEDRHEUMATOLOGYNV.COM

DR. CARLOS LETELIER

THE CENTER FOR ORAL SURGERY OF LAS VEGAS

Dr. Carlos Letelier has a passion for dental and medical excellence that’s exemplified through his distinguished background and his education credentials. His dentistry studies began in Chile where he earned his DDS degree. He then went to Boston, where he enrolled in Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, graduating Summa Cum Laude with a DMD degree.

After that, Dr. Letelier went on to complete his surgical residency and graduate from UCLA Medical School with both an MD and an OMFS degree. In addition to becoming board certified in both oral and maxillofacial and cosmetic surgery, Dr. Letelier has taught in

the OMFS residency program at Fresno University Medical Center. His expertise covers a broad range of oral surgery, from wisdom tooth extraction and dental implants to facial and dental trauma. He is a trusted oral surgeon in Las Vegas, NV as he’s highly regarded for his treatment of patients with severe bone loss and missing teeth. Even today, Dr. Letelier continues to expand his knowledge by participating in specialty courses throughout the world. Additionally, he is a highly sought-after lecturer by his colleagues throughout the USA and other global locations.

THE CENTER FOR ORAL

SURGERY OF LAS VEGAS

10115 W TWAIN AVE. SUITE 100, LAS VEGAS, NV 89147

702-367-6666

LASVEGASOMS.COM

DR. BRIAN CARR

LAS VEGAS CONCIERGE ORTHOPEDICS

Guided by the motto, “Concierge service without the concierge price,” Las Vegas Concierge Orthopedics combines personalized attention with world-class expertise. Founded by Dr. Brian Carr, who served 18 years as an orthopedic surgeon in the U.S. Army, the practice reflects his commitment to exceptional patient care. After retiring from military service, Dr. Carr moved to Las Vegas to deliver highquality orthopedic treatment with a personal touch.

Las Vegas Concierge Orthopedics specializes in joint replacement, sports medicine, fracture care, hand and wrist conditions, and innovative non-surgical treatments that help patients regain mobility and return to active lives. The practice emphasizes clear communication, individualized treatment plans, and guiding patients through every stage of care with confidence. By prioritizing accessibility and personalized service, Las Vegas Concierge Orthopedics is redefining the patient experience and providing the support every patient deserves.

LAS VEGAS CONCIERGE ORTHOPEDICS 9260 W SUNSET RD, SUITE 200 LAS VEGAS, NV 89148

702-963-1231, LVCORTHO.COM

DR. JP VILAI

ROSEMAN MEDICAL GROUP

Julpohng “JP” Vilai, MD, is a board-certified Pediatrician and Associate Professor of Clinical Sciences at Roseman University College of Medicine, where he serves as Pediatrics Clerkship Director and Medical Director for Roseman Medical Group (RMG). Since joining Roseman in 2023, he has helped expand RMG’s scope of practice and services offered as well as adding new providers, reflecting a broader commitment to caring for patients across the lifespan – infants, children, adults and older adults – while strengthening a model of care that centers not just on individuals, but on families as a whole. This approach ties into the curriculum of Roseman University’s College of Medicine MD program, preparing to welcome its second cohort of students this summer. Both RMG and the College of Medicine focus not only on a patient’s medical issues, but on the social determinants of health, which can impact a patient and their families’ health more than any other factors. Patients of RMG also benefit from the clinic’s broader affiliation to Roseman University of Health Sciences, providing access to top talent, clinical research activity, and improved patient care through evidence-based medicine.

Dr. Vilai’s clinical interests include infectious disease, behavioral and mental health, telehealth, transplantation medicine, and care for unhoused, underserved and LGBTQIA+ populations. He works closely with Shannon West Homeless Youth Center and serves as Vice President of the Nevada Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. These focus areas reflect his dedication to ensuring equitable access to high-quality care for all members of the Las Vegas community.

A member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, he has received Educator and Mentor Honors from UNLV’s Pediatrics Residency Program, along with Nevada Business Magazine’s 2025 Healthcare Heroes Humanitarian award.

Dr. Vilai is passionate about improving health outcomes in his hometown of Las Vegas through value-based, humanistic care.

Roseman Medical Group is conveniently located adjacent to Spring Valley Hospital, with laboratory facilities on the hospital campus and accepts most insurances. Offering same-day and next day appointments, RMG provides compassionate, empathic care, treating a range of diseases and providing preventative care and wellness services.

PLASTIC SURGERY VEGAS

TRUSTED FOR EXCELLENCE. NOW BETTER THAN EVER.

Plastic Surgery Vegas is proud to welcome Dr. Aradhana Mehta to our surgical team. After completing six years of comprehensive plastic surgery training, Dr. Mehta completed additional fellowships in both rhinoplasty and breast surgery. She is the only plastic surgeon in Las Vegas with this unique combination of training. Drawn to plastic surgery by the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives, Dr. Mehta believes that confidence and self-image can have a profound impact on overall well-being. She is passionate about helping patients look and feel like the best version of themselves through thoughtful, individualized care, listening closely to each patient’s goals, and creating treatment plans that reflect their unique needs. Her arrival represents an exciting new chapter for Plastic Surgery Vegas as we continue our commitment to clinical excellence, innovation, and personalized patient care.

PLASTIC SURGERY VEGAS

8530 W SUNSET RD, SUITE 130 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA 89113

702-822-2100

PLASTICSURGERYVEGAS.COM

DR. ALEMI, DDS

DENTAL IMPLANT & SMILE SPECIALIST

After graduating with honors and receiving the prestigious Senior Dental Student Award, from UCSF School of Dentistry in 2006, Dr. Alemi practiced general dentistry for three years. Recognizing a passion for complex restorative care, he pursued extensive, advanced training in the fields of Cosmetic Dentistry and Dental Implants by completing a rigorous three-year residency in Graduate Prosthodontics at the world-renowned University of Michigan.

As a specialist in Prosthodontics, Dr. Alemi and his dedicated clinical team commit themselves to providing the absolute highest standards of oral health care. His award-winning dentistry utilizes a unique, meticulous combination of cutting-edge science

and fine artistry to give each patient a remarkable clinical experience and a truly unbelievable result. Dr. Alemi’s extensive expertise covers a broad range of advanced dental treatments, specialized from sameday dental implants and immediate teeth replacement to comprehensive smile makeovers and full-mouth reconstructions utilizing custom crowns and porcelain veneers. He has been serving the Las Vegas community since 2012.

Understanding that a visit to the dentist can be daunting, Dr. Alemi designs every treatment plan with the patient’s ultimate comfort and longterm wellness in mind. By combining state-of-the-art digital dentistry with a warm, patient-centric approach, he transforms not only smiles but also his patients’ confidence and overall quality of life.

To ensure his practice remains at the absolute forefront of modern dental technology and techniques, Dr. Alemi continuously expands his knowledge. He regularly participates in elite continuing education courses throughout the world and maintains active professional affiliations with premier organizations, including the American College of Prosthodontists (ACP) and the Academy of

Osseointegration (AO). When you choose Dr. Alemi, you are choosing a master of dental artistry dedicated to delivering world-class care right in your community.

DESERT SMILES

10175 W TWAIN AVE SUITE #120 LAS VEGAS, NV 89147

702-202-2300

DESERTSMILESDENTAL.COM

DR. ALICE CHEN

ROSEMAN DENTAL & ORTHODONTICS

Dr. Alice Chen joined Roseman University’s College of Dental Medicine in 2022 and is a leader within both the Institution and the Las Vegas community. With a warm smile, kind face, and gentle way, her gift of connecting with children is obvious. Born to parents who guided her toward a professional ethos, “be helpful and take care of others,” Dr. Chen has followed this guidance many times over. With more than 20 years of experience as a pediatric dentist, Dr. Chen is ideally suited to lead Roseman Dental & Orthodontics. “My work at Roseman has allowed me to focus more on doing what I love most—treating children. I couldn’t be

happier about the opportunity to focus on children while training dentists to be caring and competent providers.” Dr. Chen practices at Roseman Dental & Orthodontics in Henderson and at Roseman Dental – Summerlin, Roseman’s pediatric dental clinic focused on treating medically compromised patients of Roseman’s partner organization, Cure 4 The Kids (C4K). Working alongside the physicians at C4K, Dr. Chen provides highly specialized care for children with cancers, blood diseases, and other life-threatening diseases. These children often deprioritize their dental needs, while needing a dental home that can deliver specialized care.

Beyond providing exceptional patient care, Dr. Chen is dedicated to preparing the next generation of dentists to be competent, adaptive, and empathetic providers, ready to manage even the most complex cases. Roseman Dental students based in Nevada may complete a two-week pediatric rotation with Dr. Chen, gaining invaluable exposure to patients navigating pediatric cancers and rare blood diseases through C4K, as well as learning about craniofacial anomalies through participation on the Southern Nevada Cleft Team. Students are also exposed to clients of Empowered—Roseman’s program supporting mothers impacted by opioid or stimulant use — enabling them to interact with new mothers concerned with infant oral health. This immersive experience not only builds a pipeline for future specialists but also fosters the development of more culturally fluent and clinically superior clinicians.

As a mother of two children herself, Dr. Chen is passionate about forming a personal connection with her patients and treating all families with patience, warmth, and compassion, believing that every child needs a tailored approach to dental care. She is dedicated to empowering families with practical and evidence-based information about oral health.

Dr. Chen received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from UCLA, graduated cum laude from Boston University, and pursued her specialty degree in pediatric dentistry at Temple University Hospital. Dr. Chen and her husband Dr. Matthew Raddue have resided in Southern Nevada for 18 years.

Ameli | Dadourian Medicine

Welcomes Two Distinguished New Concierge Physicians

We continue to expand exceptional multispecialty concierge care in Las Vegas, and we are proud to welcome Dr. Rodriguez and Dr. Jeong to our growing practice.

SHIRLEY RODRIGUEZ, DO

• Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine-trained family physician.

• Board-certified in Primary Care and Family Medicine

• Dedicated to providing whole-person care for patients of all ages.

MIKE JEONG, DO, MPH, CMD

• Yale and UCLA-trained geriatrician.

• Triple Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, and Hospice & Palliative Medicine.

• Internal Medicine and Geriatrics

With cardiology, endocrinology, rheumatology, internal medicine, family medicine, and geriatrics medicine now integrated under one roof, patients enjoy seamless access to board-certified specialists, advanced diagnostics, preventive health planning, and truly personalized care built around each individual’s health goals.

Community outreach workers say drug abuse among Southern Nevada’s homeless population is exacerbated by lack of housing, treatment facilities … and compassion

“THE LEAST OF THESE”

It’s around 11 a.m. on an already blistering late spring day. The heat radiates off the pavement as a three-SUV caravan travels down a busy main drag in East Las Vegas.

It isn’t long before a man, who looks to be in his 30s, appears through the windshield on the side of the road. He looks to have slumped over unnaturally, mid-bicycle pedal stroke. He stands eerily bent in the settling dust, frozen and unaware of the cars whizzing by him.

One of the SUVs pulls over immediately. Snacks, water bottles, and a box of Narcan are pushed into the slack arms of the man, who’s slowly becoming more upright and alert.

There’s a four-person medical team in today’s caravan, with community health advocates and registered nurses. They ask the man if he needs help. He says no.

There’s nothing those in the caravan can do. They pull back onto the road.

The man, explains Jaqualyne Peeples, is “nodding out.” “When they’re folded over like that, that’s the fentanyl lean,” she says.

Her official title, with the nonprofit homeless service organization HELP of Southern Nevada, is outreach worker. But her unofficial title among colleagues is Narcan ninja — a nod to the four people she’s saved in the last three months alone with the opioid overdose reversal medication.

“I’ve never seen that one. He stopped mid-riding. That was scary,” says Peeples’ colleague Rayvonte Toliver, climbing back into the vehicle.

The caravan is a partnership between HELP of Southern Nevada and the Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD). Since its launch last fall, SNHD’s Street Medicine Team has joined HELP’s Homeless Response Team several days a week, administering primary care services, writing prescriptions and helping patients pick them up, and providing specialist referrals. Their unofficial motto is meeting people where they are.

People like the man on the side of the road. People who, as they have become increasingly visible, have also become increasingly maligned — recently to, at least some, political advantage.

“What if that addict on the street were your son? The baby boy you loved more than anything, unemployed, doing drugs

every day, defecating in public, harassing old ladies for gas station money. … Would you buy him crack pipes? Would you let him continue to degrade himself in public?” former Los Angeles mayoral hopeful Spencer Pratt wrote on his campaign website. “You cannot fix LA’s drug problem with street medical teams jamming Narcan up their noses, and simply propping them up to overdose again, again, and again until these poor souls inevitably die in the streets.”

HELP and SNHD’s work — clearly — stands in stark contrast to the strategies Pratt proposed. He lost in California’s primary on June 2 by 4.5 points to his next closest competitor, Nithya Raman. But his tough-on-homelessness ideology lives on locally in candidates who did survive their primaries, such as Nevada State Senator Carrie Buck, winner of Nevada’s Congressional District 1 GOP primary.

“You can’t walk the Strip without seeing the homelessness, the drugs, the crime. But Dina Titus is busy voting to send billions overseas while our streets rot,” Buck said in a January Facebook post.

As political campaigns are won and lost on amplifying rhetoric, how big, truly, is the problem of substance use among Las Vegans experiencing homelessness? Why does it persist? And what is being done to improve it? Social workers, clinicians, and researchers say the answers are complicated.

THE SCOPE

“I think the appropriate word would be pervasive,” says Louis Lacey, director of homeless response teams for HELP of Southern Nevada, when I ask him how common substance use is among people experiencing homelessness.

Lacey is standing in front of a makeshift memorial along the sidewalk of E. Charleston Blvd. where it meets I-11, black and red plastic bag scraps tied in the shape of a heart on a chain link fence behind him. A small mountain of sun-bleached stones are scattered beneath.

“A few years earlier, there was a homeless encampment there,” he says, gesturing to the now-vacant sandlot behind the fence. “When somebody (in the camp) OD’d or died, they literally (wrote their name on a stone). So, people’s lives reduced to a name on a rock on the side of the road.”

It’s a tangible reminder of the human impact behind the numbers — which tell a sobering story. Clark County’s most recent Point-in-Time (PIT) Count recorded more than 8,800 individuals experiencing homelessness on January 29, 2026, which is a 12 percent increase since the last count in 2024. Of that number, a sizable contingent, 35 percent, reported drug use — also up from 9 percent two years earlier. Nicholas Barr, a professor of social work, says the real number could be higher. (At the time

of reporting, Barr was at UNLV. He has since moved to the University of Utah.)

The PIT Count is “kind of notoriously an undercount of all things measured,” he says, including homelessness and substance use, because of the self-reported nature of the survey. “If you go up to a stranger and ask them if they have a drug problem, you’re probably going to get an undercount.”

Barr points to broader studies done by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that indicate substance use rates anywhere from 16 to 40 percent.

The upper limit of that range was borne out by the University of California, San Francisco’s 2023 California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness — the largest of its kind conducted in Nevada’s western neighbor since the 1990s. That study placed any current drug use at 45 percent of respondents.

“People just see the most visible distressed folks on the street and assume that’s true of all people experiencing homelessness,” Barr cautions.

Staff at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, a local nonprofit that offers both shelter and substance abuse services through its

 PREVIOUS PAGE: HELP of Southern Nevada staff hit the streets 365 days a year to provide services.

 ABOVE: A makeshift memorial for encampment members who have died from opioid overdoses.

Lighthouse Recovery Program, are less measured in their estimates. They guess the actual numbers to be even higher than those Barr cites from the literature.

“A high percentage — like 85 to 90 percent — of people are using substances,” COO Alyson Martinez says.

For some people living on the street, like a Las Vegas local who goes only by Helen, Martinez’ estimate correlates to personal experience. Helen became unhoused after losing her nursing job five years ago.

“It’s a lot of people, a lot of people that I know that never used are (now) using,” she says, sitting on a plastic stool in the scant shade of an open SUV trunk, after the HELP/SNHD caravan has pulled over to care for her.

Helen fell off her bike a few days priorand now has tenderness from clipping the handlebar with her ribs. She cringes during the physical examination, as med-

ical staff palpate her torso to find breaks or fractures, and then gratefully accepts over-the-counter pain meds and other necessities the Street Medicine Team hands her in a gallon Ziploc bag.

“I don’t use opiates,” she says. “I use marijuana and crystal meth, and I drink occasionally, but I don’t get high every day.”

She says she’s afraid of using fentanyl, specifically, since she’s seen many friends overdose on it. “I would never, ever do a drug like that. I get so mad at the drug. … Fentanyl is like playing Russian roulette with your own head — (it’s like people) just get a gun and put one bullet in there and just keep pulling the trigger.”

Indeed, the deadly culprit in the roadside memorial Lacey highlights is fentanyl, a trend he and his team have seen more often in the last three years. “It is mainly fentanyl and methamphetamine,” he says.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is up to 100 times more potent than morphine, Shane Kraus says. “The higher the potency rate of a drug, the more dopamine reaction, the more dopamine spike, the more sedation, the more good feelings you have. And fentanyl is very strong.”

Kraus is an associate professor of psychology and director of the UNLV Behavioral Addictions Lab, where he studies the effects of substances on the human body and brain. “What we know is about 10 percent-ish, of people — or one in 10 — who use opioids get that emotional (effect), like the anxiety and stress goes away.”

Opioids are still the top drivers of overdose deaths in Southern Nevada, says Brandon Delise, SNHD’s senior epidemiologist, who updated the community on the Health Department’s efforts to drive overdose deaths down at April’s annual State of Public Health event. “That (was) still true in 2025, but the magnitude of those deaths is declining” in Clark County.

Delise is referring to a 20 percent dip in overdose deaths more broadly between 2024 and 2025, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. That decrease brings us more in line with, though still above, the U.S. average.

“Clark County consistently lags behind national opioid trends. Patterns we observe across the U.S. tend to emerge here locally about one to three years later,” he said to a packed room of local health officials, health district staff, and journalists.

That’s encouraging news for people like Yareli Romualdo Daniel, a community health worker with the Street Medicine Team. But newer drugs entering the pipeline continue to give her pause. Especially xylazine, known colloquially as tranq — a reference to its strong sedative powers.

“With fentanyl, we do have Narcan that can counteract the overdose, but with xylazine, there’s nothing that can really be done with it,” she says, because xylazine isn’t an opioid.

Beyond that, advocates say, alcohol and stimulants remain popular, despite the recent focus on opioids and tranquilizers entering the drug supply. “The problem of stimulants and alcohol (is they have) never once taken a step back or decreased,” says the Rescue Mission’s Alyson Martinez.

Another challenge, as the drug market becomes more diverse, is multiple co-occurring addictions.

“A lot of people have a polyuse substance-use disorder,” says Martinez’ colleague, the Mission’s director of programming, Jeru Lollis. “It’s always like,‘Here’s the three or four that I’m addicted to, and I need to stop. I have my stimulants to wake me up. Maybe towards the end of night, I’m going to indulge in alcohol and cannabis and feel a different type of way.’”

Taken together or alone, these substances pose a persistent risk. Clark County coroner data shows 189 unhoused individuals died of drug-related causes last year. That’s down from a high of 201 the year before, but still up from 2023’s number.

Combining drugs with the heat increases people’s risk — they have a tendency to nod out or fall asleep in the direct sun, on scorching hot pavement, or in stifling tents. Heat-related illness is the second-leading cause of death for Clark County’s unhoused.

“That’s a really big concern,” Romualdo Daniel says.

Even more so the longer people stay on the streets, which indicators say is becoming more common. Rates of chronic homelessness, defined as being both disabled and unhoused continuously or experiencing repeated bouts of homelessness amounting to at least a year, have gone up by 55 percent in the last decade, according to data compiled in a 2024 UNLV Criminal Justice Faculty Research study. Going back even further, HUD’s data finds a statewide increase of more than 246 percent since 2007.

This, advocates like Barr say, is a very troubling statistic for Las Vegans tasked with decreasing substance use rates among the unhoused.

Why? “It is actually inherently traumatic to be homeless,” he says, “PTSD and substance use are highly comorbid, meaning they occur together very frequently.”

JUST SAY NO

It can be challenging to detangle what the Rescue Mission’s Martinez calls the chicken and egg question: “Did I start using substances because I’m unhoused, and that’s a way to function, that’s a way to survive, that’s a way to deal with the circumstances? Or did I have an addiction that led to being unhoused? Those are two very different types of populations.”

 HELEN, who’s been unhoused since losing her job five years ago, says she regularly experiences a sense of despair over her living conditions and loss of friends.

Outreach workers tend to estimate the former group in Martinez’ question, those who developed substance use disorder following chronic homelessness, to be larger.

“A lot of folks think that drugs are the gateway to homelessness and having troubles in your life, and really that’s not completely true,” HELP’s Lacey says. “A lot of things happen in your lifetime, and then you have to figure out how to cope. Some individuals will enter into homelessness without a substance abuse problem, but after being on the street for an extended period of time, then substance abuse enters into their realm.”

Data bears out Lacey’s observation. According to UCSF’s study, of the participants who used drugs regularly, 42 percent started using more than three times per week only after losing their housing.

Barr says it all comes down to trauma. “With long enough street tenure, trauma becomes ubiquitous,” Barr says. “You’re exposed to higher rates of violence, you are treated poorly by people — they either ignore you or treat you like an animal. They don’t look at you.” Indeed, UCSF places the lifetime experience of physical violence among the unhoused at 72 percent.

Helen, thinking about her time living as an unhoused person, lowers her head when I ask about her own isolating experiences. She extends her hand, gesturing beyond the large Tesla dealership sitting behind the HELP/SNHD caravan parked in the middle of the homeless encampment, to point to a smog check station in the parking lot of an auto repair shop. “Sometimes, during (hot) days like this, I go over there with my little wagon (to get water),” she says. “And if they come outside and say something to me, I just look at them and shake my head. I say, ‘You know what, you don’t even pay for this water, it’s not yours, come on.’”

Her voice cracks as she recalls an especially traumatic experience surrounding an inability to find drinking water. “I just had a friend, a best friend of mine, last July, die from dehydration. Nobody would give him water. Broke my heart.” Her friend, who was on the autism spectrum, had been out of jail for only two days before his death.

Social workers like Barr say processing this kind of persistent, daily trauma leads some to use substances in an attempt to mentally cope. “They’re in misery,” Barr says. “Imagine being on the street right now in Vegas. It’s 110 degrees outside, it’s horrible, it’s miserable. Why would you be sober in such an environment?”

He references the famous 1970s “rat park” study, wherein researchers found isolated, bored, and stressed rats consistently chose drug-laced water. Happy rats with adequate social stimulation did not. “(When you’re unhoused) you’re the rat in the cage,” he says. “I’d be pressing the lever too.”

The flip side of that, Barr adds, is drug use’s role in social networks. He says, “If you’re around people who are using it’s

a way to bond,” which can be critical to creating and maintaining safety structures on the street.

Then there’s the fear that pervades the homelessness experience. “There’s some younger guys that come around, and you can tell that they’re up to no good,” Helen says. “I feel like they’re rapists. One of them, he gives me the creeps every time he comes around, so I try not to come out of my tent. ... If you go to sleep, you better sleep with everything that you want, you know? Because sometimes you don’t get sleep out here.”

Lacey says a fear of sleep — and the vulnerability that comes with it — is common, and drug usage can extend into this, more utilitarian, sphere. “Especially with methamphetamines,” he says, “if you’re on the streets, you’re afraid to sleep because of violence or being robbed and losing all of your items. Well, one good way not to have that happen is to be on meth and be able to stay awake for extended periods of time.”

Good regulatory intentions have also accidentally paved a road to suffering, says UNLV’s Kraus. “The reason many people went to fentanyl is not because they wanted it. It’s because when we actually took away many of the excessive prescriptions for opioids, what you got was diversion.” So, Kraus says, people who got hooked on opioids through prescription use shifted their habits to include fentanyl. Thus, “fentanyl became very cheap and very available.”

Very cheap and very available, on the other hand, does not apply to the treatment landscape.

THE RESPONSE

Another insight from the California Statewide Study: 20 percent of unhoused respondents reported a desire to receive treatment for active substance use but were unable to receive it.

It’s not much better in Nevada. Ninety-one percent of Silver State residents live in a federally designated mental health professional shortage area, according to a 2025 research brief from UNR’s Nevada Health Workforce Research Center. That care is equally hard to come by for housed and unhoused people. The state was simultaneously ranked 47th worst

in the nation for access to mental health care and 46th worst for our prevalence of substance use disorder by Mental Health America’s 2025 report. That same report indicated that 78 percent of Nevadans with substance use disorder who needed care were unable to access it.

Even when unhoused people do make it into treatment programs, experts say, that doesn’t mean they actually receive treatment.

“Often, programs don’t have enough funding, or they don’t have enough resources, or the requirements to maintain your eligibility for these programs are too rigorous,” says Ashley Bunn, the Las Vegas Rescue Mission’s Lighthouse Recovery Program supervisor. As a result, throughout the various stages of substance use treatment, Bunn says, the unhoused learn to distrust institutions, and eventually might not want to reach out for help at all.

It’s why outreach and social workers, like the Homeless Response and Street Medicine teams, are so adamant about following through on promises and building trust through consistency.

The Street Medicine Team provided care to 158 unique patients between November 2025 and this May. More than 70 percent of them were enrolled in Medicaid. This, Barr says, is another pressure point for people already in active homelessness and on the margins of it, because of Medicaid eligibility changes, approved last summer, mandating that all able-bodied adults log 80 work or volunteer hours monthly to receive their benefits.

“People experiencing homelessness are medically fragile. One of the feeders to being homeless is medical debt and medical problems that make it so you can’t work. So, for sure, as Medicaid cuts go into effect, you will see an increase in homelessness,” Barr says.

Beyond Medicaid losses are the two encampment ordinances on city and county books, which took effect in late 2019 and early 2025, respectively. These bans penalize the act of sleeping outside in public parks, washes, trails, and on sidewalks, imposing fines and possible jail time. Law enforcement’s shuffle of the unhoused, dispersing and detaining people in encampments, can complicate aid workers’ efforts among a community already prone to periodic migration. “With everybody moving all the

time, that can be hard to keep the continuity of care going, because everybody could be here this week, and then next week they’re over there, and we may not even run into them for a month or two,” Lacey says. While unavoidably having to enforce these bans, officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department have tried to soften the impact of moving folks, and now have a dedicated homeless Hope and Outreach Team. “The trust is not built overnight due to some unhoused, in the past, not approaching law enforcement because of negative impact, because of arrests, because of the tone,” says Annie Wilson, Metro’s HOPE Liaison. “We have changed the culture of Metro. A lot of times when we’re out there with the unhoused (now), they’ll come up to officers in uniform and say, ‘Hey, we need help.’”

And providers and advocates are quick to point out that there is even more reason for optimism.

Numerous facilities are expected to come online by the end of the decade, the most ambitious of which is the contro -

versial 900-bed Campus for Hope. The facility’s plans say it will provide on-site substance use and addiction services, in addition to housing, job training, and legal help. Slated to open on the eastern boundary of CSN’s West Charleston campus, it’s been beset by lawsuits from residents in surrounding neighborhoods citing a possible uptick in crime and lower property values. Campus developers argue it’s designed to be a referral-only shelter, so it won’t accept clients from or release them onto surrounding streets.

The Las Vegas Rescue Mission, just south of the city’s so-called “Corridor of Hope” service hub, also has expansion plans for its Lighthouse Recovery Program to help people exit addiction. Through a capital campaign, the Mission hopes to raise $85 million to double women’s recovery beds from a couple dozen to 50.

Another such facility, the Clark County Opioid Treatment Center, is currently in the design phase. Over the summer, Clark County Commissioners approved $126 million to fund the first-of-its-kind

center, planned for the northeast area of Las Vegas. That funding, according to the county, comes from several 2022 multistate settlements with opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson, as well as a handful of opioid distributors.

Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick says the 240-bed center will focus on rehabilitation. “A lot of people ask, ‘Where’s the opiate dollars?’” she said during a June hearing. “This is where our opiate dollars are, into building a treatment center — a long-term facility with different types of beds, so that people can get the care that they need not only for the short term, but (also) the long term.”

Notably, the Southern Nevada Health District, home of the Street Medicine Team, is the largest city health department to have received no direct opioid settlement money. “We’re challenged,” Cassius Lockett,

SNHD’s district health officer, said at April’s State of Public Health event. “We’re in the midst of applying to several grants at this moment so we can continue the journey and make a dent in this effort” of funding the Street Medicine Team. Yet, that hasn’t hindered the work of the team, or the broader effort to reduce the region’s opioid overdoses, primarily through increasing fentanyl and xylazine test strip availability, targeted overdose outreach, more education, and — most quantifiably — more opioid reversal medication distribution.

“In 2020 we distributed about 5,500 doses (of Narcan), and then by 2025 that number increased to 212,000 doses. That’s more than a 38-fold increase compared to 2020,” SNHD’s Delise says. That indicates Clark County has reached what officials call “Naloxone saturation” — the amount of Narcan needed to cover at least 80 percent of witnessed overdoses.

He emphasizes this milestone is a key explanation for the County’s 20-percent overdose decline since 2024. “In 2025 the health district met and exceeded that (Naloxone) threshold for the first time,” he says.

A large share of this medication passes through the hands of SHND and HELP’s street outreach staff. “God bless Narcan,” Lacey says, raising his hands to the sky in praise. “Last week we got 4,000 doses from (SNHD), and we’re giving that much away.

We’ll (give out) 4,000 doses in about less than three months.”

This, experts say, is a reason to be hopeful. But change is incremental, and in the meantime, as markers of the crisis slowly improve, the immediate and long-term impacts continue.

THE FUTURE

“About a month ago we had a youth who was about 22 or 23 years old who had overdosed right in front of us,” recalls Lacey, shaking his head. “Fell out, we Narcaned him, called for medical backup, medical arrived. The youth was revived, refused medical treatment, refused substance abuse treatment, detox, anything. Yesterday, we were conducting an outreach in that same area, and we were informed that the day before that youth died in an abandoned building from an overdose.”

Suffering, Lacey is implying, continues, and will so long as the system allows Southern Nevadans to slip through the cracks.

“We have a very poor social safety net here,” Barr agrees. “We don’t want to pay taxes to have a good social safety net, and so this is the result.”

This, advocates unanimously echo, is the core problem with the rhetoric of L.A.’s Pratt. “It’s failing to acknowledge all the things that were system failures,” Bunn says. “There are just a bunch of points along the way where somebody probably could have scooped them up, could have contacted them, could have assisted them. And that didn’t happen for some reason or another.”

But the stigma this rhetoric reinforces, the Rescue Mission’s Bunn adds, can also deter people from seeking help in the first place. “Why am I going to reach out to a society for help, or any of the entities that are part of that society, when this is how they talk about me, when this is how they look at me?”

Barr directs the blame beyond local institutions to a deeper cultural problem. “America hates poor people,” he says. “People who use drugs who are successful don’t really have the stigma.” He cites studies indicating that just being housed reduces a person’s proclivity to turn to substances — but, he acknowledges, this can be an expensive solution.

“I just don’t think there’s much appetite in our society for this. People say, ‘Well, I’m working hard, I’m struggling. Why do I want to give my money to this person?’ I just don’t think there’s a lot of appetite for paying for really high-quality long-term residential rehab,” Barr says.

The more entrenched chronic homelessness becomes, the more substances people use — and the longer they go before receiving detox services. All this can have permanent impacts on people’s future health, Bunn says.

“I don’t know if it’s our Las Vegas heat, but there is something (about) when you combine methamphetamine use with homelessness and not really staying hydrated,” she says. “We have just seen like a lot of really strong psychosis, paranoia, hallucinations, which are a lot of symptoms that you don’t necessarily get with some of the other substances.” These symptoms don’t seem to go away or level out after sobriety for some people. “There are some people who, some of that stuff stays with them,” potentially affecting future prescriptions they’ll need to take, employment prospects, and their quality of life.

The Rescue Mission’s Martinez acknowledges that it can be difficult to strike a balance between acting quickly and being thoughtful about policy and funding allocations. But the legislative tendency is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. “We’re quick to make a decision on what to cancel, but we’re not equally ready to match it with a program that’s going to capture the outliers,” Martinez says. “We need to figure out a system that potentially works, and if it doesn’t, fine tune it. Don’t necessarily get rid of it.”

“We really need to take our feelings out of it if we want to be effective,” Barr concurs. “We may have a lot of judgment towards people who are using and homeless, but letting those emotions drive policy, it simply will not work.”

Lacey frames his own response in a moral way. “How do we judge ourselves as a community? It is how we deal with the least of these.” ✦

April 3 marked the first time in more than 75 years that Las Vegans had only one daily newspaper to read in print.

The owners of the Las Vegas Review-Journal , which had been printing the Las Vegas Sun since the two newspapers entered into a joint operating agreement in 1989, decided to stop inserting a Sun section into their daily paper. The move was the latest blow in a long-running legal slugfest between the two media organizations.

The Sun still exists online, but the abrupt demise of its print edition nevertheless represents another step away from a bygone era when local news consumers had two (and sometimes three) independent, hard-charging newspapers to read. From the Sun’s debut in 1950 until the internet completely disrupted the newspaper business in the early 2000s, the Review-Journal and Sun were battling for scoops.

The glory days, to those still around to remember them, were the 1970s and ’80s.

“The competition between the R-J, the Sun and even the local television stations was ferocious, each of them breaking stories,” recalls Jane Ann Morrison, who was a Review-Journal reporter and columnist from the mid-1970s until 2018. “If I got beat on a story, I heard about it and was expected to come back with a stronger story than the one I was beat on.”

Morrison describes that pre-internet period as “the richest days for Las Vegas reporters” because of the competition and the talented journalists who populated the newsrooms. “Both newspapers aggressively covered politics, local governments, state and federal courts, and had strong columnists,” she says.

THIS WAS THE stirring environment in which I cut my teeth as a journalist. Fresh out of college, I arrived at the Sun in the spring of 1988. It didn’t take long to see that the newsroom was filled with characters and misfits. The old-timers fascinated me. Jerry Ralya, the city editor, had been a skilled reporter, but many nights he needed a designated driver to get home safely. Harold Hyman, a veteran police reporter, was notorious for stealing people’s lunches from the office

refrigerator. Jim Barrows, the editorial page editor, was a renowned pipe-smoking piano player who delivered impromptu performances at a dive bar called Decatur Package Liquor.

But the Sun also had a growing crop of talented and motivated young turks for whom beating the Review-Journal was paramount. The pack leader was Jeff German, who covered organized crime, politics, and corruption as both a reporter and a columnist. Although German developed sources of his own, he also benefited from tips and insights provided by the executive editor, Mike O’Callaghan, the former Nevada governor.

The Sun was at its best when covering a big story. Art Nadler, a longtime Sun reporter, remembers when four Thunderbird jets crashed near Indian Springs in 1982.

“That happened around lunchtime,” Nadler says. “Me and a couple of friends were leaving for lunch, and we saw a mushroom cloud in the distance. We went back in, and the police radio was taking off like crazy. We all kicked into gear. The reporters all mobilized. We put out a special edition, and it was really good. That’s how the Sun was. With all the characters, we would all come together and knew what to do.”

The Review-Journal had a reputation as the newspaper of record (code for “boring”), but it fielded a power-hitting lineup of writers who set a high bar for the competition. Jon Ralston wrote about politics with attitude and skill; Morrison covered courtrooms infested with mobsters and corrupt politicians; and John L. Smith filed at least four columns a week, capturing the poetry and character of a unique city as no one had done before.

“The R-J was a little more sedate than the Sun,” Morrison says. “I think people at the R-J were more professionally minded and planning to move on (to larger newspapers). People did tend to move on after a while, maybe because it wasn’t as much fun.”

CHRIS CHRYSTAL worked at the Review-Journal and the Sun from the late 1960s through the late 1970s. At the Sun in that era, its legendary publisher, Hank Greenspun, was an active partic pant in daily news coverage.

“Those were the days when you could really be a reporter,” Chrystal says. “Not like it is now, when you get stomped on for saying things. Greenspun let his reporters

go out and beat up stuff and put it in the paper. There wasn’t much discussion about it. He did not stop you, most of the time, from writing things. … People would threaten to sue him and he would say, ‘Get in line. I’ve got 25 lawsuits in front of you.’”

Though not everybody agreed with Greenspun’s bomb-throwing approach to newspaper publishing, Chrystal says it was great for reporters. “Working for Hank was like hanging onto the tail of a comet,” she says. “He would back you up no matter what you did if you were his reporter. People don’t do that now.”

Chrystal remembers a time when she heard a rumor that the astronaut Alan Shepard was in town to attend a private party at Caesars Palace. Astronauts such as Shepard, who walked on the moon, were massive celebrities in the early ’70s. At the hotel, Chrystal bumped into Caesars President Billy Weinberger, who offered to escort her into the party.

“I thought, oh boy, am I in over my head?” Chrystal recalls. “These people were ultra-ultra. They were really well-dressed. I get in there and say, I might as well have a

drink. I see Hank Greenspun, my publisher, and his wife. He didn’t see me. I go over to the bar, and who’s the bartender? It’s Alan Shepard! I ask him for a drink, a gin and soda. He pours me a huge drink, and I chatted with him for a minute. It was so exciting. I was so starstruck.”

When Weinberger had brought Chrystal into the party, they passed a row of local police officers. “One of the cops was one of Sheriff Ralph Lamb’s top cops, and when I came out, he followed me onto the elevator. ‘You think you’re so smart, don’t you?’ he said to me, and blew cigar smoke right into my face. Instinctively, I hit him in the face with my drink. I sloshed the whole drink into his face. He said I was under arrest. He grabbed my arm and said, ‘You’re going to jail.’”

The elevator landed, and they got off. “He’s got me by the arm, and left a bruise on my arm,” Chrystal says. “Barbara Greenspun turned around and saw me. She got Hank’s attention, showing him that I was in trouble. Hank told the cop, ‘She’s one of my reporters.’ Hank grabs the guy and walks away with him and he’s talking to

him. Hank is gesturing, and the guy’s body language is, ‘I don’t care, she’s going to jail for assaulting a police officer.’ Then Hank came over to me. He puts $10 in my hand and says grab a cab and get the hell out of here.”

Chrystal speculates that Greenspun advised the officer about the potential political implications of arresting a reporter during an election year. “It shows you the kind of guy Hank was,” she says. “How concerned he was about his reporters.”

AS THE UNDERDOG paper, the Sun always looked for stories where it could distinguish its coverage from the Review-Journal ’s. Sometimes, this took the form of a crusade, with a relentless stream of news stories, editorials, and columns on a topic. A prime example was the federal government’s proposal to store high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Sun ’s Mary Manning filed hundreds of stories on Yucca Mountain over many years, digging for any scrap of scientific data that revealed the dangers the proposed repository presented.

“The newspaper sent me to cover many meetings conducted by the federal government, and seminars on geology, groundwater, and radioactive studies by universities and independent institutions,” Manning says. “I always attended these sessions by arriving early and staying late to make sure I covered everything. The Review-Journal sent a reporter who would drop in for an hour or so, then leave.”

During the early years of President Bill Clinton’s administration, the Department of Energy studied news coverage of Yucca Mountain, and Manning’s work was highlighted. “I was named the worst reporter for the DOE, as I had written 99 stories negative to the repository,” she says. “The Sun got plenty of attention from that report.”

Manning, who worked at the Sun for 34 years, remembers that era with a smile. “Everyone pulled themselves up and worked hard,” she says. “The newspaper had T-shirts made for us to wear, in bright orange cotton with the infamous Sun’s face and the words, ‘Nothing Outshines the Sun!’”

MYRAM

BORDERS worked as a wire service reporter in Las Vegas from the mid-1960s through the 1980s. Her reports for United Press International appeared in newspapers around the world — and frequently on the Sun ’s front page. She essentially was on duty 24/7.

“I remember I was driving home one night down Sahara,” she says in a UNLV oral history document. “As I was passing Marie Callender’s, there was a big boom. And I looked over and it looked like a car had blown up. So, I turned around and pulled in the parking lot, and it was Lefty Rosenthal.”

Rosenthal was the mob-associated Stardust Hotel executive portrayed by Robert De Niro in the movie Casino. His car exploded on the evening of October 4, 1982.

“He jumped out of the car, and he was patting his smoking clothes, and his hair was

standing straight up,” Borders says. “But I knew that he had had a hair transplant, so I didn’t know whether his hair was standing up because of the explosion or because of the transplant. I remember saying, ‘What’s going on here?’ And he’s saying, ‘They’re trying to kill me.’ And I said, ‘Who’s trying to kill you?’ And then he shut up. That was the end of that.”

SHERM FREDERICK joined the Review-Journal as a police reporter in 1976. “The papers were highly competitive for cop news,” he says. “I remember a guy named Harold Hyman (at the Sun). He seemed to have deep sources within Metro. But our editor at the time, Don Digilio, was friends with Sheriff Ralph Lamb. On a breaking story, Hyman had the edge. But on a big breaking story, Digilio always had the jump.”

Frederick, who would later serve as the Review-Journal ’s editor and publisher, looks back fondly on his early years in the newsroom. “It was fun to chase stories on deadline in that environment,” he says. “I don’t believe a rookie reporter could get better, faster training in journalism than working night cops in Las Vegas in the ’70s.”

Art Nadler, who spent 20 years as a reporter and editor at the Sun, remembers it as a “writer’s newspaper.”

“The writers pretty much ran what was going on,” he says. “The editors would do their thing, but the writers were considered the main players.”

Investigative reporting was a top priority at both papers.

“We all wanted to be Woodward and Bernstein,” Nadler says, referring to the Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. “The whole attitude was to go out and dig up what you can. There was an attitude from up top to go after it.”

ALTHOUGH MOST OF THIS ERA

is framed as a competition between the Review-Journal and Sun, there was a third player in the mix: the Valley Times, published by Bob Brown. The Valley Times had a smaller staff and a more targeted audience, but it was a scrappy competitor. A number of talented journalists got their start at the Valley Times before moving on to the Sun or Review-Journal. Ned Day is the most famous case. He wrote about the mob, and he was fearless.

“Ned Day did more to cover and uncover the mob here than anyone else,” says Michael Green, a UNLV history professor who worked as a reporter and editor at the Valley Times from 1982 to 1984. “He wrote like a dream to boot. He could write about almost anything and do it well.” Day left the Valley Times to write a column for the Review-Journal and report on the mob for KLAS Channel 8.

Green recalls that Brown’s aim was to overtake the Sun and become the city’s No. 2 paper. Taking on the financially stout Review-Journal was an unrealistic goal. “We looked at the R-J as being interchangeable with an insurance office,” Green says.

As it turned out, the Valley Times ran into deep financial problems and closed soon after Brown died in 1984. “By that time, the staff was a skeleton crew,” Green says. “Most of the great reporters who had been there had gone on to do other things. We still were able to beat them now and then on stories, which we took great pride in, but it was rough toward the end.”

IT’S IMPORTANT to understand that the competition between the Review-Journal and Sun in those days was, as Chrystal describes it, “more or less friendly.” “It wasn’t nasty,” she says. “There wasn’t a lot of hatred. We all knew each other.”

The resumés of most journalists in Las Vegas included stints at both papers. In my case, after 10 years at the Sun , I recorded another 12 years at the Review-Journal. My experiences at the Sun and Review-Journal were very different, but the common thread was the city itself. Las Vegas was — and remains — a great news town.

“The damnedest people would come to town,” Chrystal says. “We would say, ‘Only in Las Vegas,’ and it was really true. You couldn’t picture it happening anywhere else.”

THE REVIEW-JOURNAL

and Sun entered into a joint operating agreement in 1989. The deal was permitted under the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, which created an exemption from antitrust laws to rescue failing newspapers. The Las Vegas JOA,

the 28th in the country, saved the Sun from shutting down. (No JOAs are in operation today.)

The approval of the Las Vegas JOA meant the papers were no longer competing from a business standpoint, but the newsrooms continued to battle for stories. The Review-Journal was distributed to its subscribers in the morning, and the Sun was delivered to its subscribers in the afternoon, with a joint edition on weekends. In 2005, the arrangement changed, with the Sun producing a single section inserted into the daily Review-Journal.

One of my proudest moments came in 1994. I was the Sun’s city editor when we won first place for general excellence in the Nevada Press Association’s annual newspaper contest. We had finally earned that coveted honor over the Review-Journal and Reno Gazette-Journal.

An even bigger achievement for the Sun came in 2009 when it won a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on the high rate of construction-related deaths on a Strip resort project. But not long after receiving that award, as newspaper revenues plummeted amid the Great Recession, the Sun was forced to make severe cuts. It no longer had the resources to seriously compete for news.

Today, the Las Vegas media landscape bears little resemblance to the wild and woolly ’70s and ’80s. It’s more diverse, but its impact is greatly diminished. The Review-Journal still publishes a print edition, but its website and app are the primary focus. The Nevada Independent, founded by Review-Journal alum Jon Ralston, is digital only and focuses on political and government news. Similarly, the Nevada Current website concentrates on a handful of beats. The Sun has just a couple dozen staffers keeping its website afloat.

In conversations about the sad state of journalism today, a common bromide is that the readers are the biggest losers, because they no longer have access to the depth and breadth of reliable information they once did. This is true. But those of us who experienced journalism in the competitive, pre-internet era feel particularly bad for our modern counterparts, who missed out on something special.

“I had the best time I’ve ever had,” Green says of his years at the Valley Times Nadler agrees. “We didn’t make much money, but it was fun.” ✦

FOCUS ON NEVADA PHOTO CONTEST

The Nevada State Museum served as the perfect backdrop for this summer’s Focus on Nevada exhibition, where Desert Companion magazine showcased the 14th annual competition’s finest work. With photographers from every corner of Nevada submitting their best photos, our judges awarded prizes for the top snaps after filtering through a record number of submissions from all around the Silver State. Our thanks to the winners, participants, sponsors and guests who made it all possible.

SPONSORED BY

Jacob Dodson: Beyond the Negro Who Rode With Fremont

BY Rodney J. Lee

Young. J.D. wrestled the savage winter night, stood victorious come the dawn: sunlight beaming behind him a celestial crown;

the whiteness of the impassable Sierras flung over his shoulder, a cape — king of the horizon, scout finding paths ahead of the Pathfinder.

Confident, broad-shouldered, six-foot, statuesque, hair dark, dusty, coarse. A Black man, coffee — cocoa colored; young, masculine, powerful, silent, skilled.

Jacob Dodson — scout, explorer, carved a path for the Fremont Party across Utah, Nevada, California, all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Criss-cross explored this Silver State, even here, the Valley of Meadows.

His footsteps, history marks the first Black footsteps in the territory of Nevada. Pioneer, forefather; 19 years old, born free to a free Black woman, a free Black man in Washington, D.C., journeyed along these trails during the early years of Nevada’s history; silent through the high mountain trails, silent through history:

his efforts during the Mexican-American War, where J.D., Don Jesus Pico, & John C. Fremont rode round trip Los Angeles to Monterey 8 days, 840 miles; turned the tide, what they call, The Conquest of California,

another unheralded note in the song of history.

A great man forgotten, now found along these Nevada trails. J.D.

LISTEN TO Lee recite this poem on KNPR.org.