Building Bridges, Blending Voices
Growing up in the projects in New York City, Gregory Branch witnessed many traumatic events. Those childhood experiences in Brooklyn, combined with the education he received from the Xavierian Brothers, stimulated a deep desire to help others. It was an encounter in 1988, however, while at medical school at SUNY Buffalo that really focused his imagination and inspired Branch to excel in all his endeavors. That year, he and his fellow first year students invited the newly famous Dr. Ben Carson to come from Johns Hopkins to speak. “If you want to be competitive,” Carson emphasized, “you must do well in medical school.” Branch took Carson’s advice to heart. “I was so inspired; if you look at my grades, you’ll see that from that time on, I went from high satisfactory to honors.” He went on to graduate magna cum laude.
When he arrived at Johns Hopkins to begin his internship in internal medicine, Branch came under the influence of cardiac surgeon Levi Watkins, who took particular interest in mentoring fellow African American doctors as they learned their way around medical institutions. “Levi Watkins was bigger than life,” Branch remembers. “He was proud to be an African American physician and made it okay for others. Levi spoke to power and called a spade a spade. He challenged Hopkins to invest more in black and brown students.” Branch acknowledged, “Even when Dr. Watkins was chastising me, I could feel his love and I knew he was supporting me.”
Branch encountered plenty of prejudice in the hospital as a young doctor, sometimes being questioned about his credentials and qualifications by professional colleagues. Others, however, championed him. “The black and brown members of the staff did anything and everything they could to support me because they were so proud I was there as a doctor. That’s how Unified Voices got started.” When too many people signed up to sing at an annual talent show in 1993, Branch suggested they become a choir. Their success inspired continued practice and today, among his many other responsibilities, Branch still directs more than ninety participants—composed of administrators, employees, faculty, students, and local residents—as they blend their talents to sing songs of hope, health, and healing while building bridges between the medical institution and their neighbors. “We hope that through our songs and performances someone’s spirit will be lifted,” Dr. Branch says. As the group’s motto proclaims, “Where there is unity, there is strength.”
After completing his residency, also at Hopkins, Branch became the lead physician and director of laboratory services at the Johns Hopkins East Baltimore Medical Center. When he became chief medical officer for a private practice with multiple offices in Washington, DC, he discovered that “administration is one of my spiritual gifts,” and joined the first cohort to earn masters of business administration degrees from the University of Baltimore, completing the program in 1999. With this new credential, Branch returned to Baltimore and assumed the medical directorship of Baltimore Medical Systems Inc.’s Middlesex and Highlandtown clinics, then worked for the Maryland Physicians Care and Maryland Health Insurance Plan for several years. There his communication skills enabled Branch to educate physicians to achieve positive outcomes and minimize frustration; that efficiency, including his efforts to computerize the processing of records, became a model for the entire company.
Since 2008, Dr. Branch has led the Baltimore County Department of Health. He now manages more than fifteen hundred employees responsible for clinical services, community health services, behavioral and mental health services, environmental health, animal services, child and adult welfare services, animal services, medical and energy assistance, and the Section-8 housing voucher program. He is also the Health Officer for Baltimore County and is responsible for the County’s COVID-19 mitigation effort. Branch, whose degrees and professional credentials include M.D., MBA, Certified Physician Executive (CPE)and Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), is also an instructor for both the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the School of Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine. Branch directs its Urban Medical Residents Public Health Rotation. He is also the past Board President of Project P.L.A.S.E. (People Lacking Adequate Shelter and Employment), and annually hosts a much anticipated, widely attended fund raiser for the organization at his home.