Faculty Spotlight: Professor Cynthia Davis, MPH
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Prof. Davis ' Dolls of Hope Project
Faculty Spotlight: Professor Cynthia Davis, MPH
For 35 years, Prof. Cynthia Davis has been an award-winning, distinguished public health researcher and teacher dedicated to serving the health needs of medically underserved communities. One of her most sterling accomplishments is the development of the first pilot mobile HIV testing program targeting at-risk communities of color. That program has provided free HIV screening services to over 60,000 Los Angeles County residents. Beyond that, she has accomplished much.
Cynthia Davis is, in effect, a CDU lifer.“ My commitment is devoted to ensuring that students who come to Drew know about the history of the founding of the University. The reminder that our mission and vision evolved out of the Watts rebellion. The local physicians who decided in 1966 to incorporate and form the postgraduate medical school to address all of the issues described in the McCone Commission,” she said.
Born and raised in Redlands, she was fresh out of graduate school with an MPH and was working at the American Indian Family Free Clinic in Compton. She operated a family life education program emphasizing teen pregnancy prevention. CDU recruited her to replicate that work.
“ That was right around the time that HIV was coming on the scene. There was a lot of hysteria about this disease becoming part of the general population. Most people thought of HIV as a white male disease.
“ So I was forced to learn about this new epidemic, and from colleagues that I knew from UCLA who were working at AIDS Project Los Angeles( APLA), at the time a tiny little storefront on Scott Avenue in Hollywood. I learned the basic HIV / AIDS and Hepatitis B information, and integrated it into my sex education program,” she said.“ I interacted with many people who were living with the disease, and often brought people living with HIV into the classroom to put a face on the disease. This was before anyone else at CDU was doing HIV-related prevention work,” she added.
Prof. Davis began teaching in the Urban MPH program in 2009. When she realized that many students in her classes were unaware of the area ' s history, it was a call to action.“ The work that I ' m engaged in is to make those young people aware of the test of history: how we evolved as a University; and instill in them the passion and commitment to give back to the community. You can ' t just have a career and ' quote, unquote ' – make money. It ' s all about service,” she noted.
Nearly forty years later, she reflected on her accomplishments.“ I had no idea that I would develop all of the these extra keys to learning about HIV / AIDS and be getting both public and private sector funding to develop primary prevention on a local, regional, and national level,” she observed.
She reflected on the problems that continue to persist in proper HIV / AIDS health maintenance.“ Basically, it revolves around the problem of lack of access to primary health care and all of the social determinants. There are so many structural barriers and for many people in our community, taking an HIV test is the last thing on their mind. In the eighties, when there was no effective treatment, the attitude was ' why get tested? I ' m gonna die anyway ',” she said.“ It wasn ' t until we began extensive community outreach to educate and inform the community and go to where they ' re at, versus waiting for them to come to us, that we began to break down some of the barriers and misinformation.”
When the appropriate treatment protocols became available, the message was that HIV / AIDS was no longer a death sentence; but you have to know your status.“ The earlier we can get you in for care and treatment before the virus has the opportunity to totally break down your immune system, the better the outcomes. There ' s still a level of ignorance, misinformation, conspiracy theories; and people not knowing that HIV disease is now considered a chronic manageable disease. That ' s alarming,” she observed.
Does proper HIV / AIDS treatment come down to an issue of cost? No longer. Prof. Davis noted,” The AIDS Drug Assistance Program is designed for low-income people who can ' t afford the medication. When you go to these clinics, they do benefit counseling. You can pay for meds on a sliding scale with access to the medication through Medicare.“ Cost is not an issue anymore.”
CDU HIV Mobile Testing Van
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