MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 21, 2025--
beBright, a doctor-founded, doctor-led dual-specialty support organization focused on integrated pediatric and orthodontic care, today announced the appointment of Kyle Clay as Chief Executive Officer. Kyle, who most recently served as Chief Operating Officer, will lead beBright’s next phase of organic growth and continue advancing the company’s mission to deliver exceptional experiences and life-changing outcomes for children and families.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251121617487/en/
Since joining beBright, Kyle has driven operational transformation, expanded support systems for providers, and built scalable infrastructure to support a rapidly growing network. He brings extensive multi-site healthcare experience, including prior C-suite roles in dental services and operational leadership roles at DaVita. He also has a strong academic and service background, holding a B.S. in Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University.
“beBright was founded on the belief that integrated pediatric and orthodontic care is a unique and superior care delivery model in dentistry,” said Kyle, Chief Executive Officer of beBright. “Our role is to empower our doctors and teams with the best workflows and culture in the industry so children feel cared for, families feel supported, and our practices can achieve their highest potential. I am honored to lead this next chapter as we elevate the beBright POP model, invest in our communities, and build a platform where partnership, innovation and execution thrive together.”
Brad Coppens, Senior Partner at InTandem Capital Partners and Member of the Board of Directors of beBright, added: “From day one, Kyle has demonstrated the blend of operational rigor, cultural stewardship and forward-thinking strategy that defines great healthcare leadership. He is exactly the leader who can take beBright to the next level.”
Under Kyle’s direction, beBright will continue to invest in:
The beBright leadership team will remain focused on strengthening patient experience, elevating clinical standards and supporting sustainable, data-driven organic growth across the platform.
About beBright
beBright is a doctor-founded, doctor-led dual-specialty support organization built on a culture of passion, innovation and uncompromising standards. Through its integrated pediatric dentistry and orthodontics model, the beBright POP, beBright partners with exceptional providers to deliver unparalleled pediatric and orthodontic experiences that transform patient journeys through innovative integration, meticulous quality and compassionate service.
Kyle Clay - beBright CEO
BAGHDAD (AP) — An American journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad had tried to cross from Syria into Iraq three weeks earlier and was initially turned back, an Iraqi official said Wednesday.
U.S. and Iraqi officials said Shelly Renee Kittleson had also been warned of threats against her in the days before her abduction. A freelance journalist who has worked for years in Iraq and Syria and was described by those who knew her as deeply knowledgeable about the region and the communities she covered, Kittleson was kidnapped from a street in the Iraqi capital Tuesday and remains missing.
Hussein Alawi, an adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said Kittleson had sought to enter via the al-Qaim crossing from Syria on March 9 but was turned back because she did not have a press work permit and because security concerns due to “the escalation of the war and aerial projectiles over Iraqi airspace as a result of the war on Iran.”
She later entered the country after obtaining a single-entry visa to Iraq valid for 60 days issued to allow foreign citizens stranded in neighboring countries to “transit through Iraq to reach their home countries via available transport routes,” he said.
Kittleson entered Baghdad a few days before she was kidnapped and was staying in a hotel in the capital, he said.
“The incident is being followed closely by Iraqi security and intelligence agencies under the supervision of” al-Sudani, Alawi said. He noted that one suspect believed to be involved in the kidnapping plot has been arrested and is being interrogated.
Iraqi security forces gave chase to her captors and arrested one suspect after the car he was driving crashed, but other kidnappers were able to escape with the journalist in a second car.
An Iraqi intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said Iraqi authorities believe she is being held in Baghdad and are trying to locate her and secure her release. He said authorities “have information about the abducting party” but declined to give more details.
U.S. officials have alleged that Kittleson was taken by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-linked Iraqi militia that has been implicated in previous kidnappings of foreigners. The group has not claimed the kidnapping and the Iraqi government has not publicly said anything about the kidnappers' affiliation.
The Iraqi intelligence official said that prior to Kittleson's abduction, Iraqis had contacted U.S. officials to notify them that there was a specific kidnapping threat against her by Iran-affiliated militias.
Dylan Johnson, U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs, said on X Tuesday that the “State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them.”
A U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said, “She was contacted multiple times with warnings of the threats against her," including as late as the night before the kidnapping.
Kittleson’s mother, 72-year-old Barb Kittleson, who spoke to The Associated Press at her home in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, said she heard about the kidnapping from a news report on Tuesday and was visited by the FBI at her house on Tuesday night.
When asked how she felt about the kidnapping she said, “Terrible. Scared. I’ll pray for her.”
Barb Kittleson said she last exchanged emails with her daughter on Monday. Shelly Kittleson sent photos of herself from Iraq, her mother said.
“Journalism is what she wanted to do so bad,” Barb Kittleson said. “I wanted her to come home and not do it, but she said, ‘I’m helping people.’”
Surveillance footage from Baghdad that was obtained by the AP shows what seems to be the moment the journalist was kidnapped. It shows two men approaching a person standing on a street corner and ushering the person into the back of a car. There appears to be a brief struggle to shut the car door before the men get into the vehicle and it drives away.
Iran-backed militias in Iraq have launched regular attacks on U.S. facilities in the country since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Bauer reported from Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
The street corner in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street where U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1 2026. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)
U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson poses for a cellphone photo in a cafe in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo)
U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson poses for a cellphone photo in a cafe in Baghdad, Iraq, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo)
A street view shows the street corner in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street where U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1 2026. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)
A street view shows the street corner in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street where U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1 2026. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)
