LaFevers takes MAC reins
By Brandon Davis
Published in News on July 10, 2016 1:45 AM
Full Size
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Most of the walls in the office of new Military Affairs Committee Chairman Dr. Scott LaFevers at LaFevers Dental Team are lined with Air Force memorabilia. LaFevers' love of fighter jets was inspired by his father's military service.
Paintings of World War II fighter jets line the hallways of LaFevers Dental Team's offices, representing the love the new Military Affairs Committee Chair Dr. Scott LaFevers has for Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
LaFevers, a dentist in Goldsboro for 10 years, assumed the job June 30, when Julie Daniels stepped down from her two-year term. Former 4th Fighter Wing commander Col. Mark Slocum handed over command of the wing the same day to Col. Christopher Sage.
For the next two years LaFevers, 37, will work closely with Sage to maintain the relationship between the city of Goldsboro and Seymour Johnson -- a 30-year mission of the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce's Military Affairs Committee. LaFevers said the base provides $585 million each year to Goldsboro from shopping at the mall, eating at restaurants and staying at hotels. The revenue fuels the committee and LaFevers' fight for the base's longevity in Wayne County.
As a member of the committee since 2006, LaFevers participated in the steering committee for five years within the Military Affairs Committee and joined in the high-level decision making regarding Seymour Johnson's safety and the airmen's needs such as food and health. The members voted him to be president of the chamber last year, but LaFevers felt it was time to step up and make sure the relationship with the base remains.
"It was just sort of my turn, I guess," he said. "I was the next in line, and they asked me if I would be willing and I said I would.
"My plan as chair is to continue to facilitate the bridge between the community and the military personnel, and try to figure out how we can continue to intertwine Goldsboro and the surrounding communities with the military."
Beyond the celebrations and socials LaFevers will attend as chairman, the meetings with Sage and committee members throughout each week to discuss safety issues for airmen and the base will test LaFevers' organizational skills and time management as he devotes himself to the committee, to his dentistry and to his family -- and his golf game.
A native of Goldsboro, LaFevers graduated from Eastern Wayne High School in 1997, and completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at East Carolina University. He then finished dental school at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 2006.
After his father, Dr. Steve LaFevers, was stationed at Seymour Johnson and performed dentistry at the base, he started LaFevers Dental Team in 1971. Dr. Steve LaFevers' son gained a love for fighter jets and planes, but in 2006 when he retired from dentistry his son took the reins to the family business.
LaFevers said he enjoys interacting with people even when he is cleaning and pulling their teeth. LaFevers especially enjoys the military families that go to LaFevers Dental Team.
"I'm in a great business where I get to see airmen every day," he said. "They come in the office every day, and I get to treat their families and their kids. It's nice having a common denominator with them that I sort of know a little bit what's going on and able to talk to them and form relationships with them."
But he would be unable to improve the health of every patient without the help from his 16 employees.
"We have a great, great team here that's like family to me," LaFevers said. "And that's what makes this place unique in my eyes and that's why it's LaFevers Dental Team. It's a good atmosphere for the patients and the staff, and that's how I sort of measure success. It doesn't have anything to do with numbers."
But his own family is growing. LaFevers' third daughter, Kit, was born four weeks ago and joins her sisters, 7-year-old Anna Scott and 10-year-old Bree. LaFevers said he married his wife, Kim, 13 years ago and relies on her and his daughters to encourage him as he juggles multiple responsibilities.
LaFevers is active in the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and the American Dental Association. He is a current member of the Wayne County Dental Society, the BB&T Advisory Board, but he is no longer the president of the Walnut Creek Country Club after eight years on the board. LaFevers said he still plays golf though, but just tries "not to hurt anybody" when he swings.
"The only way I am able to handle anything I do is to surround myself with heroes," he said. "And I surround myself around good people whether it is at work, home, on the committee, on the board. It's the power of your circle, and I have a pretty strong circle.
"And my wife's a big fan of me and she helps and supports me in the stuff that I do even though she's got to sacrifice the time as well for me not being home. It's a constant regulation of trying to keep up with time management and trying to keep your finger on the pulse of if you're doing a good job, and the first person I look to see if I am or not is my wife."
As LaFevers begins to make tough decisions within the Military Affairs Committee, the windmill farm issue's threat over airmen and training missions still lingers, but LaFevers said the committee is working to completely end the threat.
He said this election year gives people uncertainty about laws -- whether they will pass or not depending on who becomes America's president -- but LaFevers said situations like the windmill issue that could compromise the safety of Seymour Johnson will be handled by the committee now an for the future.
"We're not only looking at Seymour today, it's mission today. We're looking at Seymour's mission 20 years from now, 30 years from now," he said. "It would be selfish for us to just worry about it now in the short term, but we all have kids that are going to be here, families that are dependent on companies here that are dependent on the base."