Dr. Kenyani Davis, a Phoenix native, joined the Community Health Center of Buffalo in 2016 and in just five years was appointed chief medical officer, a role in which she leads clinical operations for the center’s facilities across Western New York. Davis spoke with WBFO about her Black history and how she overcame the lack of diversity in the medical field.
“I think for me how I overcame not a lot of people looking like me during my medical journey is understanding that you know when you’re working in a purpose driven field, sometimes the way you practice doesn’t look like everybody else around you but it looks like what the community needs. I had to stay focused on what is my purpose, why am I doing this, who am I here for, who am I serving? And then I was blessed with some really amazing mentors along the lines. That's why it truly does take a village. It takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to get a physician in our community through the ranks so I think mentorship was a huge, huge thing for me and it's also another reason why I practice the way I practice and why I choose to mentor the people that I mentor,” said Davis.
Davis says her mother and Dr. LaVonne Ansari are some of the Black women who supported and mentored her not just through her medical career, but life in general. The latter is the chief executive officer and executive director of the Community Health Center of Buffalo. But what does support for a woman of color look like though?
“It looks like time. I think the biggest thing, that I always tell people when you find a good mentor, a good mentor is somebody who is going to invest time into you. Because time is a nonrenewable resource, right? So a mentor is not just somebody you call when you have a question. For women of color you need true mentors. You need mentors who are going to reach out to you and mentors who are going to, who aren’t afraid of you succeeding because I think sometimes we have a crab in the barrel type of mentality. For us as Black women in order to get past that glass ceiling you need other women who even if they’ve been there before or haven’t been there before is somebody who’s going to invest time in you and somebody who sees something in you that you may not see in yourself at that particular moment.”
Davis says she would love to see women of color be vocal about what it is they want and need but most importantly, deserve.
“I would love to see women of color find their voice again and understand their ask. A lot of times we’re in uncharted territory so we don’t know what to ask. We don’t know what to ask and we don’t know what to expect. We should always expect the moon and the stars. We should expect that one day we don’t have to ask for the same things that other people consider requirements, if that makes any sense.”
Black women and women of color have dealt with cycles of disenfranchisement within the workplace for decades. Having a mentor helps significantly but also being present is a large part of it too, says Davis.
“We have to show up right, we have to be very mindful of our impact in the work that we do and the representation of it and what it means to other people and I tell people all the time, the most impactful thing that I could ever do is not what I do for the 15 minutes inside of a room with my stethoscope it's just presently walking in the room. That over my career I’ve found to be the most impactful thing because what it does it allows other people to see hey little Black girl you could be a physician too. You can look like me and wear braids and still be highly educated. Coming in there and being the only one in the room whether it's a woman or being the only Black person in the room you temper conversations you give other people hope who just kind of pass through, so being present I think being present is the number one thing we could do.”
Having to put on an invincible persona daily in a world that has been unkind and cruel to both Black women and men can be draining. Davis shared her thoughts on how to navigate stress.
“The thing that I always say and I even have to remind myself is that as Black women we’re beautiful, and we’re strong, and we show up when asked and when not asked, but the truth is we don’t have to wear a cape every single day at every minute of the day. We too, are human and we have the ability to not only extend grace but we have to extend grace to ourselves as well. I always tell my Black women we don’t have to be super women every time, we have emotions and we have feelings and we want to make sure we check in with ourselves and we process how we feel; the mind, the body, and the spirit because for some of us we’re the matriarchs of our families so without us it starts to crumble. I really want Black women one day to extend self care and grace and mercy to ourselves.”