Meet Dr. Leif Gambee

I was born and raised in Oregon City, Oregon. I was one of three boys and grew up in an active household full of hunting, camping, and overly competitive sports. After high school, I went to Gonzaga University and studied biology, knowing I would eventually apply to dental school. After my time in Spokane, I was fortunate to get into OHSU School of Dentistry. It was here that I fell in love with the artistic and detailed nature of the profession and the opportunity it gave me to impact the people around me positively.

I appreciate the education I got at OHSU, but OHSU provided me with far more than an education. The day I started, they assigned me to a second-year mentor, Jacqueline Platta. Little did I know she would be my mentor for life. Jacque and I married just a few months after graduation and lived in Canby, Oregon, for 3 years. We both had experiences in corporate and private practice during this time. Jacque always had a plan to specialize, and in 2020 was accepted into an orthodontic residency in Denver, Colorado. A week after her acceptance, we found out she was pregnant as well! Our daughter, Reese, was born in June of 2020 amid COVID-19. We packed up and moved to Denver two weeks later to complete Jacque’s residency. I purchased an office in Denver, mostly out of necessity, because associate opportunities were rare during that time. I loved my team there, but the longer we were in Denver, the more we realized how incredibly important it was for us to move back after residency to be around family. It became even more apparent when we had our son, Weston, in May 2022. My parents live in Terrebonne, Oregon, and I have many aunts, uncles, and cousins in Bend and Redmond. It was the perfect fit.

Jacque grew up in Scottsdale and went to the University of Arizona. We have basketball debates often. The GU vs. UA games are fun at our house! I love golf, and it’s starting to rub off on Jacque. We can’t wait to get back to central Oregon golf. Soon, we will be able to fill a foursome with our family! Which is something we are really looking forward to. We both cycle as well. We even had a nice tandem road bike for a while, but once we had kids, I didn’t feel comfortable riding it with a kid trailer. It felt like peddling a bus.