A Man of Medicine
DAP Health Associate Chief Medical Officer Dr. Silas Gyimah says, “My goal is to cultivate a culture of growth, and to share love.”
Words by Kay Kudukis
Ghanaian proverb: You must act as if it is impossible to fail.
Born in Akim Oda, Ghana, Dr. Silas Gyimah’s family was blended. Within that family, he is the second son, and third child of six. One full sister lived with his mother and older brother, and he gained a younger stepbrother and two stepsisters when his father — a timber contractor and church leader — remarried. When Gyimah (GEE-mah) was of middle school age, Dad sent him to boarding school in Accra, the nation’s capital.
He took all the requirements — science, math — but his favorite was art. “I was a good artist,” he says. “I had a very good art teacher who kind of inspired me, and my initial plan was to become an architect.” At the end of the program, Gyimah was awarded art student of the year.
Although he loved art and architecture, it couldn’t hold a candle to his love for the teachings of his faith. Even in middle school, he was the lead for the campus ministry. “We called ourselves the Anointed Warriors,” he says with a hearty laugh.
On to America
When Gyimah was 14, his father gifted him something he presented to all of his children: an opportunity to go to America. Gyimah eagerly accepted, but as Monty Python expressed, “No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.”
“As an immigrant, with all that racial division, I'll be honest, it was a very significant shocker to me,” Gyimah cedes. He didn’t know he’d moved to Chicago Heights, Illinois, a racially tense area at that time. He attended one alarming sophomore year, thanked his “auntie and uncle” (AKA host family), and hightailed it to San Marcos, just outside San Diego, with yet another “auntie and uncle.” His subsequent junior and senior years were thankfully substantially less challenging.
By the end of high school, he’d fallen off of an architectural career, and was laser focused on how — and within what field — he could make the most impact. He decided on the most logical jump from architecture … biochemistry?
Biochemistry, put extraordinarily simply, is “the makeup of living things,” and that makeup is oft described as building blocks. If you squint, there’s an actual correlation to architecture. And while Gyimah was positive architecture was out and biochemistry was in, “I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do with that,” he says.
His One True Calling
Hippocrates said, “Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love for humanity.”
When his dad suggested he look inside health care, Gyimah became a certified nursing assistant (CNA) and went to work. It provided him with three things — money for rent, a space to give back, and an opportunity to do recon inside the care industry. “I looked at who has the most impact, right?” he says. “From the CNAs to the LVNs [licensed vocational nurses] and RNs [registered nurses], and I thought, ‘Well, if I’m gonna do it...’”
He worked nights 60 hours a week, went to Palomar Community College full-time during the day, led a ministry, and still managed to squeeze in a few public speaking courses. “Growing up, I was known to have an impact on people,” Gyimah says, “so my aspiration was to see how I can improve myself in that space.”
Midway through his junior year at California State University, San Marcos, Dad’s business experienced a downturn and money got tight. If Gyimah wanted to continue, it would be entirely on him. He applied for a scholarship, but those 60-hour work weeks affected his grades. They weren’t terrible but affected some scholarships. The advisor encouraged him to take out a student loan.
“That was actually the best advice ever,” Gyimah says reflectively. “I took the loan, stopped working, got caught up on all my fees, and started making A’s. Mind you, these are all the advanced classes at that time. Needless to say, I did really well my last year.” How well? So well that he received the Outstanding Student Award for Biochemistry.
At Long Last, Love
“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
- 1 Corinthians 13:13
Gyimah was at a campus ministry event in Los Angeles when his heart skipped a beat. Her name was Sally, and she was studying to be a nurse. They not only had medicine and their faith in common, but she is also from Ghana. “We graduated at the same time. And we had a plan, right?” he says. “She wanted to pursue nursing, so she went to San Francisco. I wanted to pursue medicine. That’s when I went to Ross.”
Ross School of Medicine in Dominica, at that time, not only gave Gyimah his degree but his mojo too. One year later, he married Sally.
Clinicals were at Los Angeles Community Hospital, and in 2017 — the first year of his residency at Eisenhower Medical Center — their daughter was born. Baby girl number two came two years later. Number three arrives in July.
From Borrego Health to DAP Health
Gyimah began working at Borrego Health as a physician during the last year of his family medicine residency at Eisenhower, and went full-time after graduation. He served as the clinician lead at his site for the first two years, and in 2022 became the Adult Medicine department chair. In January 2023, the call came for him to serve as the associate chief medical officer, a role DAP Health asked him to assume when it absorbed Borrego Health.
His motivation and passion are to develop systems and a culture that foster support and growth for fellow clinicians. “The patient population we serve is very close and dear to my heart,” Gyimah says passionately. “Every day I come to work, I have the opportunity to impact clinicians in a positive way [so that they can then] impact our patients. That feeds me and makes me happy.
“Just being present with my team and with our patients brings a great deal of satisfaction to me — nurturing and fostering growth and development for each and every individual through all our different initiatives. My wife thinks sometimes I’m crazy, but I love work.”
In conclusion, Gyimah offers words he takes to heart: “Live your life not as a reaction to others’ attitude. Be focused, grounded, and intentional in all your ways. That’s the only way you will live to fulfill your full potential.”