Dr Flo moved to Maine from New York with her parents when she was 12. After graduating from Portland High School, Flo received a degree from Lake Forest College in Chicago. She returned to Maine and while working with Portland Adult Education and Spurwink she realized that helping people smile was her passion. She earned her dental degree at Howard University and joined the US Army as a captain. Being away from Maine made her miss her community and all the outdoor activities the area offers, so once her Army service was complete, she and her wife, Donna Ekart, moved to Maine. They live with their two Labrador Retrievers in the Rosemont area of Portland. They enjoy kayaking, camping, running, and snowshoeing throughout the state.

When it comes to smiles, Dr Flo goes beyond her dental practice in Southern Maine. She has a line of natural tooth polish that provides an option free of the neon dyes, plastic abrasives, and foaming agents that can increase your chances of cold sores. Her tooth polish uses essential oils such as rosemary, camomile, bergamot, and mint which are anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal. Her tooth polish focuses on helping to repair gums and prevent decay. You can find her tooth polish at the Portland Food Co-op, local maker fairs, and through her online shop. Dr Flo talked about her product line on WMPG explaining what led her to create this product line. Listen to more about her products.

Dr Flo received a Gold Star Champion award from Maine’s Breathe Easy campaign for promoting awareness about the impact of menthol flavored cigarettes and e-cigarettes on gums and oral health. Flavored nicotine products have been found to be appealing to first time smokers, increase the quantity smoked, and the chemicals allow the nicotine to be absorbed more quickly into the system.

Dr Flo is committed to strengthening BIPOC and LGTBQ+ communities in Maine. She founded Fourth Friday Happy Hour for BIPOC in 2019. Looking for a pandemic-safe way to continue those conversations in 2020, she created a WMPG radio show, In the Pocket. Dr Flo was previously a radio host with WMPG as a high school student through their youth program and later had a weekly disco show. She sees her current show as a platform for BIPOC community members to have open conversations and promote their work as entrepreneurs, community builders, policy makers, and creatives. Her program is in many ways an oral history of the lives of BIPOC people in Maine. It airs on Thursdays at 7:00 pm and you can listen to the show archives at her podcast site and support the show’s development via Patreon.

Flo is a board member of The Third Place. She is energized by the vision of this organization to build and retain a community of Black Mainers via deep connections at professional and personal levels.

She is also a board member of Equality Maine. Being black, lesbian, and female, she understands that marginalized people will always have to defend and demand equal human rights for themselves.