GBMC Has Faith

She grew up in a family filled with positive role models: a grandmother who attended Cornell in the early 1900s, a grandfather who had his own charter bus company, and a father who earned a PhD and three master’s degrees. GBMC HealthCare Board Chair Faith Elise Thomas, Esq. came from a family of thinkers and doers.

Faith has served on and chaired various committees and boards at GBMC since 2006 and took over as Chair of the GBMC HealthCare Board of Directors on July 1, 2022. She has more than 30 years of experience in corporate, tax exempt, and real estate transactions law. She holds a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and is admitted to practice law in Maryland and Washington, D.C. She was recently named among Maryland’s Top 100 Women by the Daily Record and as Outstanding In-House Counsel by the American Bar Association.

With such impressive credentials, those who meet Faith for the first time may be intimidated, but her kindness and friendliness soon win over even the shyest of people. Most of those who know her would be surprised to learn this professional dances the Argentine Tango when she can squeeze time out of her frenetic schedule, which includes frequent coast-to-coast and world travel.

Faith shared the secret of her success: she had a special relationship with her paternal grandparents.

“Long before I started school, my grandparents were my mentors and my biggest cheerleaders. They opened the world to me. They emphasized aspirational thinking -- I could pursue any vocation I desired.”

As early as third grade, Faith considered various careers, including becoming a doctor and an architect. Through her education at the Key School in Annapolis and Morgan State University, Faith began to zero in on a career in law. Faith recalled her favorite teacher, saying, “Mr. Peter McGonigle at Key School had a law degree and told our class that you can do a whole lot with a law degree. I revered Mr. McGonigle, so I followed his advice and set my sights on a career in law.”

When Faith was in 11th grade, she realized she had earned enough credits to graduate and start college a year early. She was already studying at the college level, spoke French, read Homeric Greek, and traveled extensively during her summers to Europe and Africa. She spent a summer in Nairobi, Kenya which included a real African safari and meeting the Maasai people while touring the countryside. To no one’s surprise, she did start college a year early and graduated in four years, Summa Cum Laude.

Later in law school, Faith made the most of every opportunity. One of her professors was the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who taught constitutional law. She also interned on Capitol Hill and met her future husband, Nathaniel, who was already working there. It was her marriage to “Nat” that eventually brought her back to Baltimore.

Currently leading one of the practice groups within the Baltimore County Office of Law, Faith's career has spanned two law firms, a real estate development company, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). While she was Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Enterprise Community Partners in Columbia, GBMC HealthCare Board member Harry Johnson, Esq. nominated Faith to serve on what was then the GBMC Foundation Board. After 10 years of exemplary service on that Board (later renamed the Philanthropy Committee), Faith was asked to join the HealthCare Board in 2014. With experience on several prominent local boards, board service at GBMC was a natural choice for Faith for several reasons: her two favorite physicians, Drs. Ginny Merryman and Sarah Whiteford, practiced here; Gilchrist cared for her father in his final days; and she embraced GBMC’s community-focused approach.

GBMC President and CEO, Dr. John Chessare, said Faith is a dedicated leader who has served GBMC for many years, in many capacities. Her style is to encourage contributions and participation from everyone in the room. He said her commitment is unsurpassed, and GBMC is incredibly fortunate to have Faith leading the way on the HealthCare Board.

“I could not be happier or prouder to know that Faith Thomas is our HealthCare Board Chair," he said. "She has the experience and expertise to know what is best for GBMC and, as a result, she makes the right decisions for the way ahead.”

Faith said, “It was my honor to be selected to serve on the HealthCare Board, and I have been privileged to lead that Board as Chair through a pivotal time in GBMC’s history.

"We have many talented and intelligent leaders at GBMC. I always make it a point to listen to all my colleagues, avoid snap judgments, and fully immerse myself in the business of GBMC.”

Looking back on her tenure on the HealthCare Board, Faith is proud to have served during the challenges of COVID and an expansion unlike any since GBMC opened its doors in 1965 – The Promise Project.

“The Promise Project, though extremely complex, has not been as difficult as one might imagine," she said. “We have great leaders on our team who have made our significant campus growth seem almost easy. I cannot take the credit for The Promise Project’s success. I just want to say congratulations to our entire team for a job well done!”

She noted the experience of achieving the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2020 as a highlight of her tenure on the HealthCare Board and as a key factor that paved the way for The Promise Project’s overwhelming success. Faith thanked Drs. Chessare and John Saunders, Philanthropy Committee Chair Heidi Berman, Philanthropy Vice President Jenny Coldiron and the GBMC HealthCare Board for pulling together the many moving parts of this extensive construction and fundraising plan.

“Baldrige means that we did the right thing for our community and our patients, and we were acknowledged on a national scale for it. Now, the rest of the world knows what we have known in the Greater Baltimore area for years – GBMC makes it a point to incorporate quality into everything we do. We would not be able to accomplish all that we have done without living our vision, ‘To every patient, every time, we will provide the care that we would want for our own loved ones.’”

As for how Faith would like to be remembered for her years of service at GBMC, she stated, “I’d like people to recall that whatever I did, I gave it my all!”

Faith looks forward to more exciting challenges ahead. Her term as HealthCare Board Chair concludes in June 2025.