Bappa was raised in a small town in Tennessee, where the importance of healthcare in smaller communities became evident to him, especially as his father was the only surgeon in town. In 2002, Bappa purchased a struggling rural hospital in Manchester, TN, and in 2015, he merged it with another hospital in the town, leading to the creation of the first nonprofit hospital in Manchester and the founding of Dava.

In addition to his work with Dava, Bappa has been involved with several start-up medical technology companies. He served on the Board of Directors of CredenceHealth, which was eventually sold to Xerox, and acquired Specialty Medical in 2008, an online DME company that was later sold to Health Warehouse (Ticker symbol: HEWA). He currently advises CaringWays, a crowdsourcing platform for medical expenses.

Bappa earned a B.S. in Economics from the California Institute of Technology and graduated from both law school and business school at Vanderbilt University. He has served on the board of numerous charities, including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Dava Health, Coffee Cares, Children First, and the Nashville Children’s Theatre. He lives in Nashville with his wife and four children.