Leading through service | Michael Brooks, DDS '13
Michael Brooks, DDS ’13, is the definition of a servant leader. He embraces leadership and connection in his own life and work and models it for the next generation of oral health professionals. That’s why he encouraged graduates to embrace it in this year’s commencement keynote.
From a young age, Brooks witnessed the value of not just serving the community in a medical capacity, but investing in it. Growing up in Key West, FL, he spent quite a bit of time in the children’s area of the hospital across from his elementary school, where his grandmother worked. There, he saw how one doctor embraced his role in all aspects of his life.
“Dr. Covington was not just serving the community, but part of the community itself,” he recalled. “He would be at sporting events, birthday parties, wedding anniversaries. He was not just a doctor—he was engaged in the community.”
Brooks knew he wanted to take on that kind of role in his own career. He discovered what that would look like for himself in middle school. A classmate complained of a toothache, but wasn’t doing what seemed obvious to Brooks—making a visit to the dentist to get it fixed. As the son of a military veteran, Brooks had insurance that most providers would take—but as his mother explained to him, that wasn’t the case for many families in his community.
“Most folks have to choose between putting food on the table and paying for a dental premium,” his mother had explained. “That was the initial inkling that led me to explore dentistry, and learn more about why there is such a discrepancy in access to care.”
As he attended the School of Dentistry, Brooks continued to have conversations about access and equity with faculty and mentors. He never forgot the experience of Dr. Covington, nor his friend in middle school. They were top of mind when he received five job offers after graduation—and when he took the one that paid the least, but “would have the greatest impact on the community.”
Brooks began his role as a dentist at NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center, and by his third patient, he knew he’d made the right choice. The patient, a young Black boy, was struck when Brooks walked into the room. “He kept looking at his dad, then back at me, then back at his dad,” Brooks recalled. “Finally, he said, ‘Dad! The doctor looks just like me!’”
That moment solidified what Brooks had been working to accomplish his whole life: “I realized the impact I could have,” he said. “If you see it, you can believe it and you can be it. That little boy saw me, and saw in himself the opportunity to be a doctor.”
Brooks stayed at NorthPoint, working his way through the Dental Office Efficiency Committee before he became dental director. In addition to the ability to provide access to care, Brooks loves working at NorthPoint because it is an integrated health center—providing care for the whole person.
“It provides the greatest opportunity to truly care for people,” he explained. “I can address needs that range from housing instability to food insecurity , and I can help people meet those needs.”
Brooks has helped his patients meet those needs time and time again—from connecting a patient who was having trouble making ends meet to the food pantry housed within NorthPoint, to providing resources for career growth, to supporting a patient in the midst of a deep depression. Through it all, he’s learned a lot about servant leadership—so when he was given the opportunity to return to the auditorium where he received his degree twelve years ago, he knew exactly what he’d share.
Brooks felt that this class in particular would benefit from hearing his advice on embracing uncharted waters.
“I truly believe the last four or five years have pushed health care to new limits,” he explained. “The COVID-19 pandemic, murder of George Floyd and uncertainty of our economy has significantly impacted how health care is provided. This current graduating class had to endure a rapidly changing environment, and continue to develop proficiencies both in the classroom and in the clinical setting. I think we would have to combine the Great Depression of 1929-1930, the polio outbreak of 1944-1945 and the Civil Rights Movement of 1954-1968 together to fully create the environment these students have been in. My focus on ‘uncharted waters’ stresses the fact that these current students are entering an era filled with unknowns.”
Focusing on the health care provider as the captain of their team, Brooks shared three key ingredients to being a servant leader: flexibility, perseverance and listening. “The definition of a great leader is having the ability to get someone to do something they thought was unachievable,” he stressed in his speech.
Above all, Brooks hopes that the graduates heard from him the importance of being a servant leader. “In health care, you are a servant,” he said. “You are there to provide the highest quality of care, to connect with an individual or family and to get them to a better place.”
He also hoped to reach the family, friends and loved ones in the audience—and he’s confident that was a success. After the ceremony, the grandfather of a graduate approached him. “He said he’s been to a lot of these things. He has kids and grandkids who are doctors,” Brooks recalled. “He said the good speakers activate something in the graduates—but that the other attendees usually don’t get much out of it. But he felt like he got something from my speech, too.”
Making an impact on the whole audience was rewarding for Brooks. He loved the experience of providing remarks, and of witnessing the culmination of years of hard work for students with whom he’s worked personally at NorthPoint and as a mentor. And he looks forward to seeing them make a difference, too.
“I hope we continue to have a strong lineage of alumni who give back and inspire future generations of graduates to go out into this world, and do their best and be their best,” he said.