In this time of transformation of US healthcare policy and the ever-growing global healthcare crisis, it is necessary for doctors to be equipped as policy makers, public health professionals, and international health servants. My experience as a community organizer, political activist, and international health worker have informed my perspective and fortified my commitment to serve underserved communities. Going to high school in a poor Black community in Houston, Texas’s Third Ward, I was exposed to the reality of health disparities, especially as it relates to mental health. As a consequence, my interest and thirst to serve was born.

It was during my studies at Morehouse College that I began to cultivate a global perspective on health and a drive to find solutions for the health crisis that I witnessed as a study abroad student in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa. It was after graduation that I decided to make an impact as a grass-roots community organizer while continuing my graduate studies in epidemiology. Throughout my college and graduate studies I had the opportunity to obtain skills and training in scientific research with such institutions as the NIH, CDC, and NASA. However, it was my work as a community organizer that eventually catapulted me to the international scene where I would learn in greater depth the nature of the health care crisis in West Africa.

During my very first trip to Africa at the age of 19, I encountered traditional African medicine and have since been invited to sit at the feet of healers from Uganda, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Togo and Benin. These medicine men opened my eyes to a different approach to healing through their indigenous science. It was here that I also met amazing doctors from Cuba working in isolated African villages. Impacted by the incredible commitment of both the Cuban doctor and traditional healers to serve, I knew it was time to pursue a career in medicine. It is my intention to make my contribution to the field of Family & Integrative Medicine, by bringing both my Cuban medical training and experience in complimentary & alternative medicine to underserved areas in the US and Africa.