A Local Pandemic Expert
The State of California has a total of 60 public health officials representing counties and cities. Of the 60, 22 are women and 38 are men. Prior to the pandemic, most Long Beach residents were not aware the City has its own Health Officer, but now many know her name, trust her and respect her. Dr. Anissa Davis, MD, MPH, has been front and center during the City of Long Beach’s response to the COVID 19 crisis during a time when we, as a society, faced social uprisings, and demands to change systemic racism, and racial and gender inequalities. These challenging times will be recorded in our history books and in honor of Women’s History Month, we will hear from the woman helping to write that history.
Dr. Davis grew up in Long Beach and graduated from Poly High School in 1987. She obtained a BA in History at UCLA, then attended Stanford School of Medicine, graduating in 1998 with her MD. She returned to Long Beach to complete a residency in Family Medicine, from 1998-2001. She then completed a Master’s in Public Health at UCLA in 2002 and worked for the LB Department of Health and Human Services (LBDHHS) as a public health physician specializing in biological bioterrorism agents. In 2005, she left the city to begin a career in Los Alamitos as
a family physician, providing primary medical care to adults and children, which she did for eleven years. She returned to LBDHHS in September 2016 as the City Health Officer.
This pandemic has shown the inequity and the fear within communities of color but it has also shown how representation can positively influence outcomes. As a Black woman, Dr. Davis understands how important her role is as a member of a community terribly impacted by the pandemic and at the center of social change. She used her platform to speak honestly about the disparities in Black and Brown communities and received her vaccination publicly to help ease the anxiety experienced by so many in the community. In an article published in the LB Post, Dr. Davis says, “When we’re fighting racial injustice, we’re also fighting COVID 19. They’re interconnected and you can’t simply disentangle them.”
Click here to read the full article.
Our meeting will be held on Saturday, March 6 and begins at 10:00 am
with the program featuring Dr. Davis beginning at 11:00 am. Please register using
this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZErdeCqrzIiGdQxSFqBVN23SKdVk1Cydhb7