08/11/2025
Access East President Debra Thompson held a small in-office party for Paul Bray on July 31, the day of his ECU Health retirement. Paul had been Debra’s colleague in different community-health endeavors for much of his 28 years with the health system, while also reporting directly to Debra for about a decade, including in her other role as ECU Health Vice President of Clinical Population Health.
Several of Paul’s closest colleagues came to celebrate him and the important, influential work he did to advance rural health care in eastern North Carolina.
“Paul pushed the status quo,” Debra has said of him. “He was always looking for innovative solutions to challenging issues.”
Paul first came to what was then University Health Systems (UHS) in 1997, after serving as executive director for a community health center in inner-city Chicago. He managed ambulatory care for UHS before branching into chronic-disease management, his passion, to include both organizational and research work on diabetes. He has published widely on the subject.
“His heart has always been focused on how to best meet the needs of vulnerable populations, with an emphasis on diabetes management,” Debra noted.
Paul closed out his tenure with ECU Health as Quality Program Manager for Community Based Care, in a career that likewise included collaborations with different departments/programs at the ECU Brody School of Medicine. On top of all that, Paul is also a licensed marriage and family therapist!
“I’ve (done) everything you can imagine here!” he said with a laugh.
Joining Paul at his retirement party were Thomas Irons, MD, currently Access East Medical Director, and with an unprecedented career through the ECU Health system as one of the primary movers in ENC community health, and Doyle M. “Skip” Cummings, PharmD, the Berbecker Distinguished Professor of Rural Medicine and Professor of Public Health at Brody.
The three men grew close over the years, and the stories they recounted of their early work in bringing certain needed health care services to outlying parts of the region often had an almost Wild West flair, they encountered and overcame so many unexpected, and sometimes outlandish, obstacles along the way. Creative solutions were often the key.
"Paul (was) an innovator in new models of care for patients in rural areas,” Dr. Irons has said in the past of his old friend. “He was particularly a pioneer for group visits with diabetics in rural practices."
Among Paul’s most notable contributions, Dr. Irons elaborated during the party, was “putting the people on the ground to do the work.”
To which Skip quipped that back then, Paul would the whole time be saying, “How are we gonna pay for this?”
“That’s Paul,” Dr. Irons said with a laugh.
To that end, Paul turned himself into a grant writer. He secured, he figures, something like a half-million dollars in grant money through the years.
“Paul is an extraordinary grant writer,” Dr. Irons commented. “He wrote the grants for those group visits."
Now officially retired, Paul has just headed off on a month-long trip to Costa Rica with his wife and granddaughter, as part of an Outward Bound program.
“It’s pure vacation,” he said as the party wound down. And if ever a man has earned a vacation, it’s Paul Bray.
Across his storied career, the importance of Paul’s contribution to the care of diabetic patients in eastern N.C. alone cannot be overstated. His work has changed countless lives for the better.
“He will be missed,” Debra said, “and I look forward to hearing about his adventures!”
So from all of us at Access East, thank you, Paul!
“Until our paths cross again,” Debra added warmly, “take care and make awesome memories!”
