Member of the Month: Kia Davis

Kia Davis, ScD, MPH
Washington University School of Medicine

What brought you to IAPHS?

Dr. Hedy Lee! As the lone social epidemiologist in my division, I desperately sought like-minded collaborators. After meeting Hedy, she suggested that IAPHS might be a good professional home for me and my work, and I’ve been attending the conference ever since.

What discipline(s) does your research fall under?

I am a social epidemiologist growing an action-oriented, policy-informing research program focused on 1) identifying and understanding how structural racism and its consequences (measured broadly from residential segregation to racial wealth inequality) impact chronic disease risk factors and 2) identifying opportunities for neighborhood, organization, or policy change that can undo those harmful impacts.

What other disciplines pique your interest? Are there additional disciplines you are interested in incorporating in your own research?

Public health is very much a team sport, so my work is very interdisciplinary. For example, some of my current RWJF-funded projects are exploring how place-based interventions can disrupt the pathways from residential segregation to health inequities. In this work, I use mixed methods and incorporate spatial epidemiology, sociology, urban planning, community organizing, and environmental health. In other work exploring racial wealth inequality, I incorporate economics. Moving forward, I would be interested in incorporating public policy. I’m committed to conducting actionable research, so the collaboration potential is endless.

What are you planning to do in the future? Goals for the next five years?

Personally, I’m planning to travel more. I traveled often before COVID, but my frequency has not yet returned to those levels, and it seems like these next few years will be a great time to get back to that. Professionally, I’m planning for more intentional dissemination of my work to audiences that can implement the information. There will also be a strategic plan for grants and papers because, you know…academia.

What is your favorite thing about IAPHS?

I love that the focus of IAPHS seems to be at the intersection of interdisciplinarity and health equity. I also love the people. I’ve learned so much from conferences, and connected with amazing scholars, some of whom have been co-investigators on grants or co-authors on presentations.

Will you be at the conference this year?

Yes! As someone who has included some community organizing methods and principles in my work, I’m very excited to see other ways people incorporate community engagement into their work.

What do you do for fun?

For fun, I spend time with friends and family, watch reality TV from time to time, and travel. I also love the arts, so I often go to plays or concerts. Balance is necessary to sustain yourself while advocating against health inequities.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever heard?

I asked one of my mentors in academia how she juggles everything. Her advice was that you have to know which balls are made of rubber and which are made of glass. When things are hectic, this one helps me see a way forward.

If the readers want to reach you, what’s the best way to contact you? 

I have social media that doesn’t get a lot of attention so the best way to reach me is email: DavisKL@wustl.edu.