No wonder Dr. David Baker III cares for the sick and often disadvantaged at Charlotte’s Novant Health Michael Jordan Family Medical Clinic - North End.
His father, Dr. David Baker II, was a hand surgeon who attended “Dismantling Racism” workshops in his retirement. His mother, Betsy, stuffed her church’s refrigerator with fresh vegetables for refugees. His older sister, Elaine Hall, works with Learning Help Centers of Charlotte, a Christian ministry serving Spanish-speaking families. Elizabeth Zisette, the oldest of the three Baker siblings, works for the North Carolina Healthcare Association, which advocates for more accessible healthcare.
From the day the second Michael Jordan clinic opened on Statesville Avenue in 2020, Baker has served as its primary physician. He figures he’s treated 2,500 patients in all, typically 24 a day now. They come from nearby shelters and neighborhoods seeking care for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, depression, substance abuse and other issues. The doors are open to all. The uninsured and underinsured are welcome. Care is free if patients cannot pay.
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At the north Charlotte clinic, whatever your lot in life, you will be seen and heard by a young doctor who found his ministry in medicine.
“David has the heart of a healer,” says Novant Health’s Dr. Kelley Lawrence, “not just for his patients but for their families and the community.”
Going the extra mile
Four days a week, Baker sees patients at the clinic. On the fifth day, he teaches at the UNC School of Medicine Novant Health Charlotte Campus. One of his course offerings is a medical humanities seminar that challenges aspiring physicians to explore such issues as racial disparities in healthcare.
Lawrence, a family medicine physician who serves as campus director for the UNC medical school’s Charlotte campus, said Baker is wonderfully suited for the roles of both physician and teacher. He’s easy to talk to in English or Spanish, she says. (He’s fluent in both languages.) He gives each patient the time they need to share their concerns. And he has a great laugh, which is a powerful icebreaker for patients often unaccustomed to such care and attention.
Here’s what one patient, who’d been living at a homeless shelter when he met Baker, had to say: “I think God sent me this blessing. I probably wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for Dr. Baker. That's the truth. I had visited some clinics before, but I wasn’t satisfied with them. I never got referrals to specialists. When I came here, Dr. Baker knew right off there was a problem with my heart. He knew I had digestive problems. And he’s done everything he could to get me to the right place, to the right specialist. I feel like I owe my life to him.”
Commitment to care for people who are often ignored? It’s the extra mile Baker has always wanted to walk.
‘The difference my father made’
Growing up in Charlotte, Baker has vivid memories of parishioners coming up to his father on Sunday mornings at Myers Park United Methodist Church to thank him for restoring the use of their hands.
“I saw the difference my father made in their lives,” he says. Cancer took Dr. David Baker II in 2018 at age 67.
His father’s work helped point Baker toward medicine. So did the wilderness first aid course he took as a freshman at Davidson College. “It involved learning a tangible skill,” he says, “a tangible thing we can do to help other people.”
The mission trips he took in his early teens were also life-shaping. (Before medicine, he thought about going into the ministry.) In Nicaragua, he visited an orphanage for kids with disabilities and listened to their stories. In Mexico, he helped build homes for the poor.
Joe Hamby, Baker’s youth pastor at Myers Park United Methodist, let loose a joyful laugh when asked to share memories of his travels with Baker.
In Reynosa, Mexico, Baker would bellow “MORE CEMENT” in Spanish, loud enough to get those wheelbarrows moving. On trips to Mountain TOP (Tennessee Outreach Project) to volunteer at a day camp, Baker would rouse Hamby before the workday began so they could play Ultimate Frisbee.
“Classic David,” says Hamby, now director of community education at Roof Above, a Charlotte nonprofit working to unite the community to end homelessness. “He was always ready to go. He always had this smile on his face from ear to ear. I’m just so proud of him.”
Hamby performed the ceremony when Baker and the former Kate Weddington were married in 2012. Baker and Weddington have known each other for as long as they can remember. Their friendship began to deepen on summer church mission trips to Reynosa, then blossomed into love during their Davidson junior year abroad in Peru. They have two children: Daniel, 7, and Lucy, 5. Baker still travels to Reynosa, where he serves on the board of Faith Ministry. One Christmas, Kate and their children joined him to celebrate with friends they’ve made there.
A pivotal life moment for Baker came on a snowy spring break trip to West Virginia during his junior year at Davidson. By day, his team repaired homes. By night, they bonded over meals and music. The experience opened his eyes to rural poverty and environmental hazards such as black lung disease. It also reminded him that whatever their lot in life, people share the same hopes and dreams.
“They love their kids and want to provide the best life possible for them,” Baker says. “Most of the time if you show interest in being open to others, they will be welcoming and kind and teach you a lot.”
That’s the spirit that led him to medicine, and the Michael Jordan clinic.
After graduating from Davidson College and East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine and completing a residency in Asheville, he joined Novant Health, and the Michael Jordan clinic, in 2020.
He still plays Ultimate Frisbee. He also works out with F3, a men’s fitness group that encourages participants to believe in something bigger than themselves.
‘THE STRENGTH OF THE TEAM’
Dr. David Baker III credits teamwork for making the Novant Health Michael Jordan Family Medical Clinic - North End a valuable community resource.
“I would like to shout out the critical roles of physician assistant April Gentry, longtime medical assistant Princess Davis, therapist Kathy Heatley, community health worker Barbara Alcala, our bilingual front office team of Kathia Florentin and Giselle Gonzalez, and the indomitable clinic administrator Deborah Muhammad. We can only make a difference and provide remarkable care through the strength of the team.”
‘The goodness in all these people’
It’s a Wednesday morning at the Michael Jordan clinic on Statesville Avenue, which is within walking distance to Crisis Assistance Ministry, the Howard Levine Men’s Shelter and the Salvation Army Center of Hope shelter for women and children.
A digital screen in the lobby flashes information on the importance of getting checked early for diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses. A patient engages in a lively conversation in Spanish with a member of the clinic’s team. A sign above the front desk quotes Michael Jordan on why he generously built the four clinics for Novant Health that bear his name — two in Charlotte and two in his native Wilmington, North Carolina: “I want to be the bridge to the next generation.”
Baker takes his visitor on a tour of the clinic, pointing out the exam rooms like a proud homeowner showing off his remodeled kitchen. But it’s not the building that most profoundly touches his heart. It’s the patients whose stories he is humbled to hear. Whose hurts he is blessed to heal.
“We are made to be in relationship with other people,” Baker says.
“Working here gives me the opportunity not just to provide medical care, but to be in community with a wide range of our neighbors. That brings meaning to the work, and motivation to come to work each day,” he says. “We get to see the goodness in all these people.”
In addition to an early life steeped in service, and bearing witness to the care his physician father provided in Charlotte, Dr. David Baker III also cites music as an important part of his development. Learn more about Novant Health’s partnership with the arts here: Explore the Healing Power of Art with Novant Health.
Music has resonated deeply throughout my life, shaping who I am and how I approach my work. From the simple joy of Raffi records and the powerful vibrations of a church pipe organ in childhood to singing with my own children today, music has always been a source of profound connection.
Learning to play the piano and then the trumpet instilled in me the critical values of practice and perseverance. These weren't just musical lessons; they were fundamental skills that paved my way through medical school and into my career as a physician.
Most importantly, music taught me the centrality of listening and collaboration. Here at the Michael Jordan Clinic, we strive to embody these principles daily, listening carefully and thoughtfully to the ‘notes’ of each patient's story. These stories, much like a beautiful melody, enrich our lives and guide our work.”
