Get to Know the RAM Staff: Brad Sands, Clinic Coordinator.
By Alex Phipps, Fundraising Specialist
If you’re looking for Brad Sands in the office and can’t find him, just pause, tilt your head, and wait a
moment. Listen for the loud, boisterous laugh, and mentally prepare yourself for the belly ache you’re
about to get from laughing alongside him. The only thing more contagious than his laugh is his passion
to help others. “I have been in healthcare since 2007, trying to do what I thought healthcare was, which
is help people. I’ve worked for level one trauma centers, ambulance services, firehouses, and primary
care offices. In all of those places, I’ve never truly felt like I’ve been able to help people like I want to.
But here [RAM] – it gives me the chance to genuinely help folks that desperately need care.”
When not helping others, you can find Brad riding around on his motorcycle, listening to stereotypical
early 2000’s alternative rock, and throwing back some sushi. He is the definition of hardcore on the
outside but a teddy bear on the inside. Brad and his family frequently go camping, and their favorite
spot is in Hot Springs, NC.
Ask Brad about the mission and for him “…it makes everything worth it. The long hours, the taking calls
at 8 o’clock at night. In a couple weeks I’ll be at a clinic being able to help 300 people with something
that they can’t get any other place. That’s what keeps me here.”
As he reflected on his experiences so far at RAM he shared a story of a mother getting cleanings for her
three kids in Texas. He marveled at how grateful she was, and how impactful it was to him. “We were
able to clean the kid’s teeth… in 11 years they’d never had their teeth cleaned. But we were able to get
them in that day, it just made her week and that was awesome.”
After years of working in the healthcare field Brad finally feels like he is doing what he’s always wanted
to do. “We’re able to get out there and provide healthcare without any kind of obstacles or hurdles that
these patients have to get through. There’re no barriers to care, there’s just show up and be seen and
get what you need. And that’s refreshing to have been in medicine for this long, and to have had to
jump through so many hurdles with insurance companies to get patients testing or meds that they
desperately need. Now you don’t have to deal with that. Now you show up and you do the job. You
provide the care, and that’s it. You don’t expect anything in return except a smile, and maybe a couple
tears. But it’s nice to actually be able to provide healthcare for what we are supposed to be providing it
for – and that’s for the betterment of people.”
When asked to describe RAM in one word his response was something that resonates with all of RAM’s
staff. “Help – it is help to the people that desperately need it. A light at the end of the tunnel of pain and
suffering that they’ve carried with them for however long because they’ve not been able to get the
attention and care that they desperately need.”
If you need Brad next October though, you should probably wait. He will be squealing like a 12-year-old
girl at a Backstreet Boys concert. The only difference is he’ll be at the Blink 182 reunion tour.
