Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis breaks the record and has made history as the first Black female physician as the new health director.
Davis has been popular for sharing her expertise on handling COVID-19 with a focus on marginalized populations. And has been featured on national and international news outlets, now taking her lead on the city’s health amidst the pandemic crisis.
The city officially announced her the city’s new health director, making history as the first Black female physician to ever do it.
A Zimbabwe doctor with a passion for infectious disease research, in her statement stated how confident she is in her abilities to take on the new role.
“I came to the U.S. to explore my undergraduate education and medical school, always knowing I wanted to be in infectious diseases because I saw how HIV impacted my country,” Dr. Hlatshwayo Davis said.
In addition, she also expressed how happy she was that her daughters will get to see their mother as the first black female physician director in the city
“My young daughters Aneni and Naniso got to see their mother being sworn in as the first Black female physician director of health for the city, that is so powerful,” Davis said.
She also shares her goals to improve employee retention in the middle of the pandemic crisis and wants to focus on educating the public about vaccines..
“We can find innovative ways to make sure that staff knows that they’re valued, while we work on more systemic issues that will help people make sure that they’re paid equitably and at levels that they can support themselves and their family,” she claimed.
“Now, we have the FDA considering an emergency use authorization for children aged 5 and above that will be my immediate goal and target,” she added.
Moreover, Dr. Davis states that she plans to keep the city’s mandate in place As masking remains a hot issue.
“My job and my level of expertise is to be able to critically look at that data on an ongoing basis so that if you have questions I can tell you why we still need that masking mandate, and until I believe that the data does not support it, we will be continuing with that masking mandate,” Davis said.
