ELY- Ely dentist Spencer Wihlm became the ninth and latest recipient of a Martha Mordini Rukavina Loan Forgiveness grant on Friday, Oct. 6. On hand to award the $30,000 grant was retired Hibbing orthodontist Michael Zakula, a past president and current member of the board of directors of the Minnesota Dental Foundation, which administers the program.
Rukavina Loan Forgiveness grants, a program which began in 2009, are supported by a grant from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board. A successful grant recipient will be compensated for outstanding educational debt up to $120,000 over a period of four years.
Spencer Wihlm
Wihlm is originally from Mason City, Iowa, but spent a lot of time vacationing in the Ely area as a youth. Wihlm said he welcomed the opportunity to move to Ely right after graduating from dental school.
“We have always wanted to live up here, Wihlm told the Timberjay, “because we love it so much up here. Everyone is so nice and welcoming.”
Wihlm joined the practice of Ely dentist Crystal Chopp at Ely Family Dental, which is the only full dental practice in the Ely area. Wihlm graduated from the University of Saint Thomas in St. Paul in 2019 and from the University of Iowa dental program this spring. He and his wife Tove moved to Ely in July. He started work seeing patients at Ely Family Dental as soon as he arrived in town.

Rukavina grants
The Rukavina grants help early-career dentists to repay qualified dental education loans if the recipients commit to practicing dentistry full-time in the Taconite Assistance Area (TAA). Since the program was established in 2009, nine new dental graduates have received grants, including Ely’s own Crystal Chopp, and now her new associate, Spencer Wihlm.
“The requirements are that a recipient works at least four days a week in a rural community,” Zakula said, “in the TAA, with the understanding that if you stay here five years, then you get the $30,000 a year for the four years. That’s all money for you to help address some of your debt. And communities benefit because they have someone young who can address the dental needs and provide dental health for people that need them badly.”
According to the Minnesota Dental Foundation, newly graduated dentists average around $300,000 in student debt, with monthly loan payments usually over $4,000. Incentive to attract and retain dentists in the region is underscored by the positive impact that every dentist contributes to local economy.
“Every dentist makes a $5 million contribution to the local economy,” Zakula remarked.

Dental deserts
The loan forgiveness program was initiated by the late Tom Rukavina, a former Minnesota legislator and St. Louis County commissioner. It is named in honor of Rukavina’s late mother to attract new dentists to practice and provide quality dental care in northeastern Minnesota.
Rukavina became motivated to create a program to attract dentists to the region’s rural “dental deserts” when his mother moved into a nursing home in the Arrowhead but could not locate a dentist to take care of her teeth.
The lack of dentists is acute in northeastern Minnesota. For example, Ely’s dental practice has a waiting list of over 1,000 potential patients.
Rukavina worked with the late state Sen. David Tomassoni, to try to fund something through the Minnesota Legislature, Zakula said. After failing to make progress at the state level, Rukavina, Tomassoni and some Iron Range dentists worked to set-up the IRRR grant program for new dentists with debt, in order to establish them in the TAA.