Client Cameo: Dr. Steven "Gage" Brasch

It is an honor to introduce Dr. Steven "Gage" Brasch as our newest Client Cameo. He has been a client of Cultivate since 2017. We have been providing services to him through from our YardBusters, Fix-It and Carry-Out Caravan programs.

Gage was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and is the oldest of three children. He was raised Jewish and practiced Judaism for 27 years, engaged in Christian practices for 10 years, and has since been practicing Buddhism for the last 30 years. Though his world travels and life experiences he has enjoyed learning about different religions by expanding his religious beliefs. He has made over 20 trips to Africa to provide medical assistance and consultation during his successful career. Gage also knows multiple languages including Swahili, French and Spanish.

He attended Northwestern University for eleven years and received both a Bachelor of Science in Medicine and Doctor of Medicine degrees there. Gage is a Board-Certified Internist with over 35 years of experience in global public health and the clinical practice of HIV/AIDS medicine. Gage has been at the forefront of the HIV epidemic since 1983 and was one of the first physicians to be certified as an HIV Specialist by the American Academy of HIV Medicine. He was one of Chicago's leading experts treating AIDS and AIDS-related disorders. His road to become an expert in AIDS stemmed from the personal loss of his beloved partner of ten years who succumbed to the disease. He is the founder of the Brasch Medical Center in Chicago where he served as the Medical Director and CEO. Through his facilities, operations and programs in Chicago, he treated thousands of HIV and AIDS patients (about 5% of the cases in the City of Chicago at that time); provided testing and counseling to over 5,000 people; and provided HIV/AIDS information and education to over 50,000 high-risk individuals.

Before retiring about five years ago, Gage served in several capacities throughout Africa. He was the consultant and HIV Coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (France) in Arua, Uganda and HIV Technical Advisor to Columbia University in Mwanza, Tanzania. Here in the States, Gage was the Program Director for the HIV/AIDS Center of Excellence for the Indian Health Service in Phoenix, Arizona and also served as the Country Medical Director for the University of Maryland/AIDS Relief in Tanzania. There he led the HIV/AIDS teams to help 80,000 Tanzanians (mostly women) to be placed on HIV treatments. He has also consulted to USAID in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Namibia and Bangladesh. Most recently, Gage served as the Country Director for the CDC in South Sudan during South Sudan's break to independence.

Gage is a proud father of his adopted son Shija from Africa and has two beautiful grandsons. It took him over two years of legal procedures to finally make the adoption official when his son was eight years old. Unfortunately, he has not been able to meet his grandsons in person since he has endured four back surgeries and suffered a major stroke during the past five years. His love and dedication to his son has never faltered, and he is happy that they are still in constant contact despite the distance and ten-hour time difference. Gage says what he misses the most from his life in Africa (other than his son and family) are seeing the beautiful animals at the wild game reserves.

Prior to his health issues Gage enjoyed mountain biking, trail running, hiking, backpacking, climbing, wilderness medicine and survival. Luckily, he is still able to ride his bike and enjoys going on leisure rides and being outdoors.

Gage is very humble for being so accomplished and is grateful for the services Cultivate has provided for him during his recoveries and through Covid. Our services help him continue to remain living independent.

Thank you, Gage, for sharing your amazing personal story and for all the groundbreaking and life-saving work you have done globally. We enjoy getting to know our clients and learning their incredible life stories, which are so interesting! It is an honor for Cultivate's staff and volunteers to be able to turn the tables and give back to you and other clients who have paved the way to make such an impact in the world.