The Conversations with Leaders in Public Health podcast is presented by the Heartland Center, located in the College for Public Health and Social Justice on the campus of Saint Louis University.

In this episode, the Heartland Centers Director and SLU CPHSJ Master of Health Administration Program Director, Dr. Kimberly Enard, sat down with the Director of Health for the City of St. Louis Matifadza (Mati) Hlatshwayo Davis, MD, MPH.

Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis discusses her work to transform the City of St. Louis Department of Health during the COVID-19 pandemic. She describes challenges to community and engagement and how her department was able to overcome those challenges. She emphasizes the importance of balancing day-to-day tasks with promoting health equity.

Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis, MD, MPH, is the Director of Health for the City of St. Louis. Dr. Hlatshwayo Davis received her medical degree from Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and a Master’s in Public Health Degree from Case Western Reserve University. She completed her internal medicine residency at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. She went on to complete her Infectious Diseases fellowship at the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM), also completing a one year dedicated non-ACGME HIV fellowship and a two-year dedicated Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) fellowship. Her passion for community engagement, diversity and inclusion and patients living with HIV (PLWH), culminated in her becoming the co-chair for the Fast Track Cities initiative in St. Louis, which in collaboration with the City and County health departments as well as major HIV community organizations in St. Louis, is dedicated to end the HIV epidemic by 2030. She was later appointed to the City of St. Louis Board of Health where she helped lead the city and region in upholding the highest possible medical and public health standards.

Funding acknowledgement:
This program is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $35,569,951 with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government. The Heartland Center at Saint Louis University has received a portion of this funding from the Department of Health and Senior Services, Office of Rural Health and Primary Care to expand efforts to address health disparities caused by COVID-19.

This program is also supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UB6HP31688 “Public Health Training Centers Program.”

The contents are those of the presenters (s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, HRSA, or the U.S. Government.