Population-Based Health in Practice: Addressing Health-Related Social Needs for Black/African American Patients

Dr. Aima Ahonkhai is an Infectious Diseases and HIV physician and leading researcher on health equity. She is an Associate Physician in Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital where she also serves as Associate Director of the Bio-behavioral and Community Science Core and Director of the Community Engaged Research Program for the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research. Dr. Ahonkhai is passionate about health equity and has focused this passion on the care of people living with HIV both in the US and in Africa. She has particular interest in the health needs of adolescents and young adults and has worked to implement care models for young people living with HIV this population in globally. With expertise in epidemiology, implementation, and community-engaged research, Dr. Ahonkhai has active research programs in Africa and the US. Her program, Care4Life focuses on improving engagement in HIV care in Nigeria by leveraging mobile technology to improve medication adherence and engagement in care, and to address mental health needs for the most marginalized individuals. Dr. Ahonkhai has worked extensively in the SE United States, a region disproportionately burdened by HIV, and maintains an adjunct faculty appointment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She has collaborated with Tennessee Department of Health as well as local health departments and community-based organizations in TN, to identify and address disparities in HIV care. She is utilized novel strategies including partnering with Black barbers in TN to address HIV stigma in the state.

Martha A. Dawson, DNP, RN, FAAN, FACHE is an Associate Professor at UAB School of Nursing. Dr. Dawson is the 13^th and immediate past president of the National Black Nurses’ Association. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing. In 2010, she earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice from Case Western Reserve University Frances Payne Bolton SON. Dr. Dawson completed her hospital administration residency at Gaston Memorial Hospital, Gastonia. NC. Her practice, leadership and clinical research focuses are in the domains of administrative systematology, career progression, organizational injustices and barriers, and equality in nursing. She has served in senior level hospital positions. She is a co-convenor of the 2020 National Black Coalition Against COVID reaching over five million during the pandemic and a co-lead of the 2020 National Commission Addressing Racism in Nursing which is groundbreaking work to improve healing within the nursing profession. Dr. Dawson serves on the Advisory Board for Direct Relief Health Equity Fund that is allowing her to address social justice and SDOHs through the act of generous donors has awarded 170 grants providing 42.2 million to address health inequities.

She is a Scholar in UAB Sparkman Global Health Center, American College of Healthcare Executives Fellow, Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Executive Fellow alumina, and a Johnson & Johnson Wharton Nurse Administrative Fellow, alumina. In 2019, Dr. Dawson was inducted into the Alabama Nurses Hall of Fame, 2021 honored as a UABSON visionary leader and 2022, president of the year by the American Nurses Associations. She has received the UAB President’s Excellence in Teaching Award, UAB Dean’s Mentorship Award, and the American Organization of Nurse Leaders Prism Award. In 2022, she became a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and appointed as an associate scientist in the Social Science and Justice Research Center and in 2023 she joined as a Center Scholar in the UAB Center for the Study of Community Health, one of 26 Prevention Research Centers designated by the CDC nationally as an interdisciplinary research center.

She has publications in books, journals, newsletters, op-eds and podcasts. The University of Louisville Hospital, where she served as CNO and vice president was first to provide drive through flu shots in the US; the model that the CDC has used during COVID-19.  She was a contributing author in the Drive-Thru Flu Shots: A model for mass immunization. She is dynamic speaker and workshop leader.  In 2006, the Martha A. Dawson Genesis Scholarship was established with the National Black Nurses Association.