Dr. Barbara Baxter serves Agape patients for four-plus decades
Park Cities doctor Barbara Baxter opened the Agape Clinic in the basement of an east Dallas church in 1983.
Her goal was to offer free healthcare to those in need. Patients wouldn’t have to verify their income or show that they lived in a certain zip code to receive medical help. The clinic’s services would be available to anyone and everyone who walked through its doors.
“Agape is God’s love, and that’s why the clinic is named Agape,” Baxter said. “It’s all about God’s love.”
The clinic has long since outgrown its original, one-room space at Grace United Methodist Church. In 2024, it provided more than $10.2 million in health and dental care support, and upwards of 7,600 individual patients walked through its doors.
Today, Agape is open seven days a week and offers comprehensive services including pediatrics, behavioral health, women’s wellness, and a full dental clinic.
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But despite its growth, Agape’s mission remains laser focused on providing compassionate care to the most vulnerable. The clinic does not accept federal funds or insurance, and is financed solely through donations, partnerships, and community support.
“It’s really like my first child,” said Baxter. “I love this place, and I protect it with everything that I have.”
Growing up, Baxter was interested in medical missions, but she had concerns about moving abroad and balancing travel with having a family. She was inspired by visiting a free clinic while a medical student to found Agape at the church when she heard of the opportunity.
Initially, Agape was only open Saturday mornings, and limited its offerings to urgent care and vaccinations. Its only labs were Strep tests and urine dipsticks. No imaging was available, and diagnoses were made by history and examination alone.
As the need for services grew, the clinic added shower curtains to its waiting area to create more exam rooms. That solution didn’t include any sound protection, but still provided privacy since it was so noisy in the waiting room that no one could hear what doctors were saying to their patients.
Agape has now moved across the street to a 10,000 square foot building that includes 14 medical examination rooms and seven fully equipped dental suites. The clinic has donated medications on-site, and performs some lab tests itself. Other tests are provided through a partnership with Labcorp.
Agape also helps train more than 500 future healthcare professionals each year.
On one Wednesday morning, patient Rodolfo Taracena brought flowers and donuts to the clinic and family nurse practitioner Rebecca Hernandez out of gratitude for his care.
He hasn’t always had good experiences with doctors, Taracena explained, and feels blessed by the services he receives at Agape.
“We are living in a selfish world,” he told Baxter. “It’s amazing when somebody gives a hand to somebody else … What you are doing is building bridges for suffering people.”
In March, Baxter received a more public accolade: the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology’s Practice Champion of the Year Award.
Now 70, Baxter continues to balance her role as medical director at Agape with teaching, medical research, and her own allergy and immunology practice.
“It’s Dr. Baxter’s spirit that keeps Agape going,” her assistant Mary Ann Scott said. “It’s the love, the care. What she’s always wanted, people catch it. It’s contagious.”
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