Welcome to new Council Members

The Dental Technologist Association (DTA) is delighted to announce the appointment of new Council members, Raya Karaganeva and Joanne Clark, as well as the return of James Green, following the successful elections in May 2025.

On behalf of the team, DTA President Joanne Stevenson warmly welcomes you to the management team. We extend our heartfelt congratulations on your new roles and express our sincere gratitude for your voluntary contributions to the profession, all while continuing your dedicated work as registered dental technicians.

Raya Karaganeva

Raya is a Lecturer in Dental Technology at the Queens Dental Sciences Centre, University of Greater Manchester. She qualified as a dental technician in 2015 at Manchester  Metropolitan University, where she went on to complete a PhD in 2019.

Her doctoral research focused on the effects of custom-made mouthguards on retention, comfort, and physiological responses during exercise. Since then, she has had a  primary interest in Sports Dentistry and has worked closely with Dental Trauma UK and the DTA to disseminate knowledge and raise awareness of custom-made mouthguards. 

Raya has previously delivered CPD seminars for Health Education England and has presented as an invited speaker at national and international conferences. Currently, she is  involved in research projects which aim to investigate contemporary developments in dental materials and is open for collaboration.

James Green

James Green is a Maxillofacial and Dental Laboratory Manager for Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London and Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex. James trained  at Barts and the London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, and Lambeth College, London, and qualified as a dental technician in 2001. This was followed by a  vocational training year at the Royal London Hospital and two years based at the Eastman Dental Hospital, University College London Hospitals NHS Trust, before transferring to GOSH in 2004. He developed the auricular splint, a custom made medical device that maintains projection and dimensions following auricular reconstruction (which was published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery) and an obturator prosthesis for children with teeth that cannot accommodate clasps due to insufficient eruption (published in the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry).

James has delivered more than 50 invited lectures, both nationally and internationally, and authored or co-authored more than 25 peer-reviewed journal articles. His awards include the British Orthodontic Society Technicians Award (2002) and the British Orthodontic Society Award to an Orthodontic Technician for Distinguished Service (2024). 

James first joined the DTA council in 2008 and served as Deputy President from 2014 to 2016 and President 2016 to 2018. He is also a council member for the Orthodontic  Technicians Association, where he served as Treasurer between 2007 and 2016 and Secretary since 2018.

Joanne Clark

Joanne is a prosthetics technician working in and running her family-owned dental lab in east London, alongside her brother.

Joanne initially joined her family in the lab in  2003 in an admin role before studying to become a dental technician herself, completing a BTEC in dental technology at Lambeth college in 2017. 

Joanne now splits her time  between hands-on prosthetic work and overseeing the smooth running of the lab as a whole.