Medical Sciences Institute Charles R. Drew
University of Medicine and Science
1731 E. 120th Street
Los Angeles,
CA
USA
90059
cynthiadavis@cdrewu.edu
Biographical Sketch:
Cynthia Davis is an Assistant Professor and Program Director in the Medical Sciences Institute at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. She graduated from the UCLA School of Public Health in 1981. Professor Davis is responsible for the planning, coordination, and evaluation of several HIV/AIDS-related Health Education and Risk Reduction Programs and mobile HIV screening programs targeting at risk medically underserved populations residing in Los Angeles County. Professor Davis was instrumental in the development of the first mobile HIV testing and community outreach project initiated in Los Angeles County in 1991. Since 1991, her HIV mobile testing projects have provided free HIV screening services to over 60,000 Los Angeles County residents. Ms. Davis has been an advocate for increased primary prevention services for women and youth in South Los Angeles and for 25 years she has been actively engaged in facilitating monthly HIV/AIDS education and risk reduction workshops targeting women and school-age youth. Professor Davis has served on the Board of Directors of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest nonprofit AIDS Service Organization in the United States, for 23 years. She co-founded Agape House, the second residential HIV/AIDS shelter targeting homeless HIV positive women and their dependent child and operated Agape House in South Los Angeles for 10 years, serving over 100 women and their dependent children.
She developed the Dolls of Hope Project in 1998 as part of World AIDS Day activities and this project, over the past thirteen years, has distributed over 6,000 handmade cloth dolls to AIDS orphans and women and youth affected by HIV/AIDS throughout the world. Professor Davis was the co-investigator on a HRSA multi-site Special Project of National Significance (SPNS) research project from 2001 to 2006 which assessed access to care issues for racial/ethnic minority HIV positive individuals who were not in care. Professor Davis is passionate about her work and has worked proactively to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS among underserved and disenfranchised people of color communities on a local, national and international basis.