Bellaire doctor named to Wellbody Alliance Board

Dr. Joseph Kass

Dr. Joseph S. Kass, of Bellaire, was recently named to the board of directors of Wellbody Alliance, a nonprofit health care agency providing medical services to residents in Sierra Leone, Africa.

The alliance provides free healthcare services to more than 35,000 in the poverty-stricken West African country, according to an organization release.

Kass began his career in corporate law as an attorney at Latham and Watkins in Chicago, but eventually moved to the field of medicine. Kass has seven years of experience as a neurologist and serves as director of the neurology residency program at the Baylor College of Medicine. In addition, he serves as the chief of neurology service at Ben Taub General Hospital.

A native of New Jersey, Kass grew up in Houston, graduating from Amherst College in Massachusetts. He received his law degree at Columbia Law School in New York and his medical degree from Houston's Baylor College of Medicine.

Kass lives in Bellaire with his wife and three daughters.

Wellbody Alliance provides healthcare in Sierra Leone, which continues to recover from a decade-long civil war. Co-founded by Dr. Dan Kelly and Dr. Mohamed Bailor Barrie in 2006, initiatives include free healthcare for maternal and child survival, HIV patients, and amputees, as well as poverty-reduction training programs. With primary funding from the World Health Organization, Wellbody Alliance is a partner project to Partners in Health.