Catching it early, in medicine and in mentorship

A gastroenterologist's most important work often happens before anyone feels sick.

A screening finds a small growth years before it can do harm, and a life carries on as planned. Nobody throws a parade for the cancer that never happened. Yet that quiet, early catch is the whole point of the specialty, and it is the clearest way to understand everything Dr. Kester Crosse does, in the clinic and out of it.

Why he chose prevention

Dr. Kester I. H. Crosse II, MD, was born in Wilmington, Delaware, to parents who expected A's and B's and did not accept C's. He studied at Hampton University, earned his medical degree at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and trained in internal medicine and gastroenterology at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He chose gastroenterology because his grandmother died of colon cancer when he was sixteen, and the specialty let him screen for and prevent the disease that took her.

Today he is a board-certified gastroenterologist and Vice President of Clinical Affairs for Maryland at Gastro Health, after years as president of his own practice and as Assistant Chief of the Department of Medicine at Howard County General Hospital. Along the way he has evaluated, hired, coached and mentored hundreds of students and young professionals.

The other thing he kept catching early

In all that hiring he saw a pattern no transcript shows. Some of the smartest people struggled, and the struggle was almost always about people skills: how they introduced themselves, held a conversation, read a room, followed up. Like a polyp, the problem grew quietly. By the time it surfaced as a missed promotion, it had been there for years.

He knows the other side of it too. At his own fellowship interview, a department chair who had never hired an African American fellow opened with, "When did you first know anyone white?" He answered calmly, about his second grade math teacher, Sister Joan, and the conversation turned to Catholic school and common ground. He became the first African American male fellow in that department. Connection, not credentials, opened that door.

The first two figures come from Ashby's analysis of more than 38 million applications. The third is from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, whose employers rate communication very or extremely important 96.1% of the time. The gap is real, measurable and, caught early, closable.

Open Doors, the screening tool

That conviction became Open Doors, published in March 2026 and rated 4.8 stars by readers on Amazon. It works the way a good screening does: simple, repeatable, early. The free TEEE Score asks readers to rate their Talent, Effort, Energy and Execution, with no seven allowed, because seven is where honesty goes to hide. The FROM Method turns small talk into connection, and the 14-Day System builds it all into habit. The companion maps every chapter.

He takes the message wherever young people gather: back to Hampton for the KAPEX Leadership Summit, to young men in grades 6 through 12 at Kappa League, and onto live television with 13News Now to talk about AI and students.

Achievement in every field

He calls membership in Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. one of the great honors of his life. Founded on January 5, 1911, at Indiana University, the fraternity stands for "Achievement in Every Field of Human Endeavor," and in his words, "Kappa challenged me to lead, mentor, represent something bigger than myself."

That is why this work matters to our community. Prevention costs less than repair. A young person who learns at nineteen to tell their story, ask a good question and follow up does not need rescuing at thirty. Closing the mentor gap early is how a community keeps its talent instead of losing it to doors nobody showed them how to open.

The partner behind the doors

Every chapter of his story has one constant. In the afterword of Open Doors he thanks his wife of more than twenty years, Dr. Kisa Crosse, as "my partner, my peace, my balance, and my blessing," and writes that the greatest "achievement" a man can have "is building a home filled with respect, laughter, loyalty, and grace."

She is a physician too: a board-certified family physician, a fellow graduate of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. Her free platform, CrosseRoads, guides families from high school to college. Set the two side by side and the design is plain. She builds the road. He opens the doors at the end of it. Crimson and cream beside pink and green, two physicians raising a family and a generation.

Read her story on CrosseRoads. If you lead a campus, chapter or youth program, bring his message to your students through the speaking page. Both sites are built with Smith App Studio.