Bridge of Aspirations Foundation

Noah Doerflinger, a native of Lawrence County, Tennessee, spent most of his early years living in Loretto and St. Joseph before moving to Lawrenceburg in 2018 and then to Cookeville in 2024. He is the youngest of four siblings: Eric Frakes, Nathaniel Sandlin, and Savana Doerflinger. His parents are the late Christi (Frakes) Doerflinger and Eliot Doerflinger.

Noah’s childhood was marked by a life-changing event on September 1, 2001, when his mother, Christi, suffered a severe spinal cord injury in a car accident. The crash left her paralyzed as a quadriplegic. This tragedy profoundly affected the entire family, and Noah, along with his siblings and their mother, moved in with their maternal grandparents shortly after the accident.

For Noah and his family, one of their biggest challenges was securing adequate healthcare, especially specialized care for his mother. They faced endless hurdles with insurance companies, enduring redundant processes and constant struggles to get approval for necessary medical procedures and home health services. It wasn’t until 2017, a full 16 years after Christi’s accident, that she was finally approved for insurance to cover home health and medications.

This experience inspired Noah to make it his personal mission to ensure fewer families experience the same hardships his family endured. According to the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), more than 100 million Americans lack access to a usual source of primary care, and millions more face barriers due to affordability and inadequate insurance coverage. An estimated 24 million Americans are uninsured, leading many to forgo medical care to prioritize basic needs like rent over healthcare. This systemic problem has driven Noah’s commitment to revolutionizing healthcare access, which he is pursuing through the Bridge of Aspirations Foundation.

The Foundation’s mission is simple yet profound: to provide bold solutions, compassionate care, and make a lasting impact in every community. Noah is dedicated to addressing the national nursing shortage through strategic partnerships with leading nursing schools, ensuring that the healthcare system is prepared to serve everyone in need.

Noah credits his upbringing by his grandparents, Max and MaryTom Frakes, for shaping the morals, values, and perspectives he holds today. Though they didn’t have much growing up, his grandparents made sure they never went without. They instilled in him the importance of faith, hard work, and community. They ensured he was in church whenever the doors were open, and their Christian lifestyle was reflected in everything they did. Even now, when Noah speaks about his grandparents, he is comforted by the kind words others share about them.

Growing up, summers were filled with simple but meaningful traditions. Noah recalls waking up early on weekends with his grandfather to visit the Amish communities in Ethridge, where they would buy fresh produce such as corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, watermelons, blackberries, and whatever else was in season. Afterward, they would always go to the David Crockett State Park restaurant for breakfast. Later, they would visit his Aunt Charlotte’s house, where they would string and break green beans, blanch them, and freeze them. They’d also make fresh sweet pickles from cucumbers and jams and jellies from the berries. Aunt Charlotte, a florist and a phenomenal cook, was particularly famous for her coconut cakes, which she made for family occasions like Christmas and her brother’s birthday.

Noah’s grandmother, a homemaker, was always keeping the house in order, doing laundry, cooking, and reading the Bible. He fondly remembers the mornings spent with her at the kitchen table, where she patiently taught him the books of the Bible. His grandmother’s sister, Sue, was very close to her, and they would talk on the phone late at night, waiting for the minutes to become free so they could catch up.

After his mother’s passing in 2023, Noah knew he wanted to honor her legacy but was uncertain how. It wasn’t until January 2025, during a coffee meeting with his good friend Andy Crockett, that he decided to establish need-based scholarships for nursing students. This idea quickly expanded into a larger vision that would entail developing and deploying a fleet of mobile health clinics across the nation in addition to developing the nation’s third freestanding neurological and spinal injury rehabilitation hospital.

While Noah always envisioned himself in senior leadership within the healthcare sector, he never imagined the path he would take would lead him here. Although the Bridge of Aspirations Foundation is not a religious organization, it is certainly founded on Christian principles. Noah often jokes that he wants the company to be the “Chick-fil-A of healthcare,” with a focus on providing exceptional service in a compassionate and values-driven environment.

With the right leadership, executive staff, and prayer, Noah believes anything is possible. He remains committed to fulfilling the mission and is excited to witness the lives that will be healed and transformed as the Foundation works to reduce the barriers to healthcare. As Noah puts it, "I’m praying that the Lord’s will be done in it all."