Emerge welcomes doctor to clinical team
New staff physician consultant on campus shares her story
Dr. Beverly Brooks, M.D., of Cedarville joined the clinical team at Emerge on May 15
XENIA — A longtime, distinguished local physician with more than 30 years of experience serving the health care needs of people throughout the world recently joined the clinical team at Emerge Recovery & Trade Initiative.
Dr. Beverly Brooks, M.D., of Cedarville, said she is excited to be at Emerge because it seems to be exactly where she belongs. “I always thought I would work in Chicago in an inner-city clinic when I couldn’t be overseas, but God brought it to Greene County.”
Emerge officially hired Dr. Brooks as the staff physician consultant for the clinical team on May 15, 2023. She has worked as a physician in many countries since graduating from medical school in 1989 and completing her Family Medicine residency in Fort Wayne, IN, in 1992.
“I went into medicine to serve needy people overseas,” she said. “As a Christian, I wanted to show them the love of God because God loves everyone. I was open to go wherever God led me, so for the first half of my career, I was in various developing countries, including Nepal and Tajikistan,” Brooks said. “My final landing place overseas was Afghanistan, in Central Asia, where I worked for 13 years. There, in order to protect wives and children, I had a small clinic dedicated to treating violent, mentally ill men. The majority of people in Afghanistan have experienced trauma and would qualify for PTSD if they had the luxury of dwelling on their emotional lives. In fact, most Afghan women would qualify as being depressed, but the depression is based on financial and societal issues which medications cannot change.”
Dr. Brooks married her fellow humanitarian worker, David Brooks, in 2002. They returned to Afghanistan in 2003 and have two children. If you ask them, they may tell you quite a story about the end of 2001.
“We came back from Afghanistan in 2014 because of security concerns,” she said. “Since then, I have worked as a family doctor in several places and, in 2019, started serving at a State of Ohio Behavioral Healthcare Hospital. God has given me a heart for people; so I am glad I was introduced to the mission of Emerge where I can be directly involved in on-going care for people in recovery, not just during their hospitalizations.”
Dr. Brooks said she is also grateful to be working closer to her home — which is in Cedarville.
“My mom is there,” she said. “and my church— Grace Baptist. I grew up in Cedarville and have lived there since returning from overseas. My dad was a psychiatrist who was well known in the community.”
Her father, Dr. Ralph Ankenman, passed away in 2018. His legacy left a strong impression on Dr. Brooks.
When asked what brought her to Emerge, she said it was Emerge Co-Founder Kip Morris.
“I met Kip through a family friend,” she said. “When he invited me out here earlier this year, I was blown out of the water. I was ecstatic that the old career center is being used and that Emerge aims to bring true healing to people’s lives… My coming here happened quickly… It truly is a God thing: Emerge needed a doctor to help clients with medications as they come out of more acute treatment facilities, and I live close and have the right skill set,” she said. “I’m looking forward to being part of the clinical team as a behavioral health physician.”
One of the things that also gives Dr. Brooks hope about the new model being implemented at Emerge is the organization’s stance on the use of medications — especially addictive medications being used in other treatment centers. “The brain changes that happen with addiction take years to reorganize and heal,” she said. “If we continue to use addictive drugs, we delay the start of that process… Medicines can and should be used as a tool to help people become stable enough to address the underlying issues and causes of addiction, but medication, by itself, is not the answer… I have great hope that this program is going to change hundreds of lives for the better.”
“When I tell people at the hospital what we are doing here, they are excited,” she said. “They say we need a place where people can get training, get on their feet, and have a second chance. This is where my heart has always been: to use medical care to help people understand the love of God. Whether I am overseas or I am here, it doesn’t matter. It’s the same work.”
For more information, to donate or get involved contact Elaine Bonner, Director of Philanthropy at Emerge at 937.974.6120 or visit https://www.emergerecoverytrade.com/