By LLeraj Esoud
South of 152nd Street in Miami-Dade, where private obstetricians have grown scarce, Dr. Gerald P. Pierre has spent decades delivering babies for families who have fewer places to turn for healthcare.
Having practiced medicine for more than 50 years, for Pierre, the work is personal.
“I treat every one of my patients, without exception, as if they were family,” he said. “I love what I do.”
And while Pierre, chief of OB-GYN at Community Health of South Florida, represents the face of healthcare most recognize — the doctor at the bedside — much of a community’s health also depends on what happens outside of the exam room.
Professionals that patients may never meet help sustain the system in payroll offices and boardrooms, in law offices and community initiatives whose outreach are far and wide.
The 2026 Class of Legacy South Florida’s Top Health Care Professionals redraws the picture of who keeps South Florida well. The Class includes: Pierre; Dr. Stephen Wigley IV, a podiatric surgeon and founder of Wigley Feet who provides advanced foot and ankle care across Florida and the Caribbean; Topeka Sam, a justice reform advocate, founder and president of EPIC Financial PBLLC; Tamu Fourie, assistant vice president and associate general counsel at Baptist Health; and Charles B. Martin, assistant vice president of payroll services at Baptist Health.
When Pierre became a part of Community Health in 2005, he counted at least 16 OB-GYNs in private practice south of 152nd Street. Today, he says no more than two practice outpatient obstetrics outside the clinic.
Pierre says a distinction he still points to with pride is having the obstetric division he led at Jackson South be recognized by the state — which drew most of its patients from Community Health — for the lowest Cesarean-section rate in Florida.
“Access to quality and unbiased care means everything to me,” he said. “We are filling a big void.”
Away from direct care, some of the work becomes less visible, though no less vital. Martin, who is also a certified payroll professional, is someone whose name most patients will never learn but whose work impacts their everyday lives.
“Every paycheck represents a person or family relying on those earnings,” he shared, “and even a small payroll error can create real hardship.”
The work is quiet by design — and, he argues, foundational. “While we work behind the scenes, financial peace of mind allows employees to focus on caring for patients.”
Fourie approaches health from another direction. Fourie, who is also an attorney licensed in Florida and New York, said she sees law and medicine as inseparable.
“It is impossible to tear apart the health inequities we see today from their origins in law and public policy,” she said, pointing to housing, schools, air and water.
Sam works beyond the health system, where another set of barriers can shape a person’s well-being. A social entrepreneur and justice-reform advocate, she founded The Ladies of Hope Ministries, a nonprofit, to serve women returning from incarceration. Like Sam, Fourie, too, carries her convictions beyond the office.
During the pandemic, while reading a news article that highlighted a community fridge in North Miami, she walked out to the patio to tell her husband about the church initiative. By that afternoon the couple had driven up to see it for themselves. Soon a refrigerator of their own stood on the lawn of Covenant Missionary Baptist Church in Florida City. Local artist Sydney Maubert painted it with a welcoming message, and each week it offered staples and fresh produce to neighbors facing hunger.
Later, Fourie donated the fridge to the church, where it still stands, now indoors. Fourie, who also holds a master’s in public health, summed up her health care role more plainly, saying: “I help the people who help the people.”
The impact of Legacy Magazine’s 2026 Class of Top Health Care Professionals reflects the principle that keeping a community healthy and whole often depends on work that may never appear on a medical chart.
