Travis Gayles, MD, PhD

Dr. Travis Gayles is an accomplished healthcare leader with extensive experience driving organizational growth and health equity across public health, private sector, and academia. Throughout his career, Dr. Gayles has consistently demonstrated leadership in advancing public health through innovation, strategic partnerships and a commitment to health equity. He brings a visionary approach to advancing its mission of promoting LGBTQ+ health and reducing systemic barriers to care to his current role as CEO of Howard Brown Health.

Most recently, he served as Chief Health Officer at Hazel Health, the nation’s largest school based telehealth provider, where he expanded telehealth services in schools across multiple states, integrating physical and mental healthcare to improve access for students. In this role, Dr. Gayles fostered strategic partnerships and championed data-driven decision-making to enhance service delivery and impact. His efforts have been recognized by Rock Health as a Top 50 Digital Health Champion for Health Equity and Illinois Top Doctors recognition for Pediatric Digital Health.

Prior to that, Dr. Gayles served as Health Officer for Montgomery County, Maryland, where he oversaw the county’s public health system, managing a large team and multimillion-dollar budget, including the COVID pandemic response and programs aimed at addressing health disparities, including the county’s safety net health insurance program. His strategic approach resulted in the county achieving high vaccination rates and low mortality rates, underscoring his ability to manage public health crises effectively. During this time, Dr. Gayles Co-chaired the CDC/HRSA Advisory Committee on HIV, Viral Hepatitis, and STD Prevention and Treatment, chaired the Maryland State Immunization Advisory Committee, and served on the Advisory Board of the University of Maryland Horowitz Center for Health Literacy. He was awarded the American Medical Association’s Award for Outstanding Government Service. 

Dr. Gayles also served as Chief Medical Officer for the District of Columbia Department of Health’s HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Administration. In this role, he implemented transformative initiatives such as expanding biomedical prevention programs like PrEP into one of the first health department clinical settings in the country, rebranding clinical programs to focus on comprehensive wellness and modernizing operations through the adoption of electronic medical records. During this time he served as a board member of the National Coalition of STD Directors. 

Earlier in his career, Dr. Gayles trained at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago/Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, where he specialized in adolescent and HIV medicine and contributed to both research and direct patient care. His primary research examined the impact of bullying and interpersonal violence on risk-taking behaviors and the influence of employment and academic status on the risk of HIV infection in young men who have sex with men. His early work laid the groundwork for his transition into public health leadership roles, where he leveraged his clinical expertise to drive systemic improvements in health service delivery and access. 

Dr. Gayles holds a BA in Public Policy Studies from Duke University, and a PhD in Community Health/Health Policy, and an MD from the University of Illinois. He has previously held faculty appointments at Johns Hopkins, NYU, University of Maryland, and DePaul University.