Get started with
micca climate change library
Get started with
micca climate change library
COming this Month:
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MiCCA Hosts the WEL Coalition for World Water Day
Previous Events
February: Black History Month
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Watch this event here.
Meet Our Panelists
Yvonne C. Collins M.D. is a Gynecologic Oncologist and current Chief Medical Officer of CountyCare within Cook County Health Hospitals System. She is board certified in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Gynecologic Oncology. Dr. Collins is a graduate of Xavier University in Louisiana and University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, Florida. She completed a residency program in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois and received fellowship training in Gynecologic Oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York.
Dr. Collins has devoted her career to educating underserved women on the importance of routine health maintenance, including Pap tests. Her research interest includes community outreach and education on the causes, prevention, screening, and early detection of cervical cancer, which is preventable. She also has an interest in empowering women through education, eliminating barriers to care and increasing access. She works with community organizations, area churches, beauty salons, task forces and the American Cancer Society on developing ways to decrease racial disparities related to cervical cancer diagnosis, treatment, and mortality. She has provided healthcare not only in the United States, but has traveled abroad to Central America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa providing care to those who need it. She lectures nationally and internationally with the goal being to educate on disease prevention. She was honored as an Outstanding Teacher and Humanitarian of the Year.
Dr. Collins has published in various scientific journals, including Gynecologic Oncology and Journal of the Lower Genital Tract Disease. In addition, Dr. Collins served on the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists (SGO) Cervical Education Committee, previous chair of the SGO Health Care Disparities Task Force and previous president of the Prairie State Medical Society. She is currently Region IV Trustee for National Medical Association and a member the Cook County Physicians Association. Additionally, she was a 2022 Climate, Health, and Equity Fellow. She has attended Trinity United Church of Christ since age six and currently serves on the Trustee Ministry, and the Deacon Ministry. She enjoys lecturing, traveling, and spending time with her family.
Cheryl A. Dickson, MD, MPH is associate dean for health equity and community affairs at WMed. In this position, Dickson works as an advocate, convener, collaborator and connector of medical school resources with the local and global community to facilitate meeting shared goals and improving the health and well-being of all the communities WMed serves. Dickson is also an associate professor in the department of pediatric and adolescent medicine.
Dickson received her medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Medical School (UMDNJ) and her Master's in Public Health, Health Policy and Management from Columbia University. She completed her residency training in pediatrics at the UMDNJ Children’s Hospital of New Jersey, in Newark, New Jersey.
Dickson has worked extensively in urban healthcare settings. In her former role as the director of ambulatory and emergency health services for Children’s Hospital of New Jersey, she was instrumental in developing practice sites, evidence-based practice protocols and key relationships for the hospital with managed care health plans as well as community partnerships. She has also served as a chair of pediatrics in which she established a pediatric inpatient hospital service, served as director for the ambulatory primary care practice,
implemented policies for pediatric emergencies and established affiliation agreements with the Children’s Hospital, Health Department, and Board of Education.
Dr. Dickson’s accomplishments include developing the cultural competency curriculum for medical students and co-facilitating cultural competency training for continuing education for practicing physicians for license requirements in New Jersey and California. Her work with the health department included facilitating an asthma coalition and immunization task force. While on staff at Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, as principal investigator, she formulated partnerships between key community organizations and the hospital that focused on improving the child health status indicators of obesity, asthma and developmental delays.
Donna Givens Davidson has over 35 years of nonprofit leadership experience in areas of youth and family development, community economic development, community partnerships, and community education. Over the years, she has developed and implemented demonstration programs and worked in partnership with a number of youth-serving organizations with the consistent goal of increasing opportunity, building capacity, and fostering growth.
Eastside Community Network addresses everything from youth and economic development to wellness and climate health equity. Work surrounding sustainability increased there when Donna Givens Davidson joined the organization in 2016. She secured more than $2 million in funding to support sustainability interventions, conducted
sustainability-related tours and built partnerships with sustainability leaders. As president and CEO of the Eastside Community Network, Donna Givens Davidson has championed equitable, sustainable development as the key to the future of the city, especially Detroit’s lower eastside, by engaging and empowering residents to help advance this change. She has also lifted Detroit as a national model, gaining recognition from the EPA and Columbia University’s Sustainability Management program.
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Under Davidson’s direction, ECN is working toward retrofitting its headquarters with green infrastructures, such as solar energy and an electric boiler, to operate as a resilience hub that educates and supports residents. ECN, which launched a sustainability fellowship three years ago to train community leaders, is part of the Kresge Climate Health Equity initiative and a Partnership for Resilient Communities member.
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Now serving as president and CEO of Eastside Community Network, Givens Davidson formerly served as president of the Youth Development Commission, CEO of Visions Education Development Consortium, LLC, executive director of Vanguard Community Development Corporation, vice president of programs for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit, and in leadership positions at several other nonprofit organizations. She serves as a board member of New Detroit, Inc., Michigan College Access Network, and Urban Research Center. She is also a member of the Bridge Detroit Magazine Advisory Council and the Charles H. Wright Community Advisory and Action Council. She is also a steering committee member for the Lower Eastside Action Plan, Building the Engine for Community Development in Detroit, and the Detroit Residents First Fund. Givens Davidson co-hosts a weekly podcast, Authentically Detroit, with Orlando Bailey.
Taylor Barrow, MD candidate WSUSOM Class of 2025, has a dual degree in sociology and biology from Boston University as well as a Master’s degree from the University of Vermont. Prior to starting medical school, Taylor was a school social worker in Bridgeport, CT. As a WSU 3rdyear medical student, Taylor is a Detroit Equity Action Lab (DEAL 7) Fellow, served as the WSU Black Medical Student Association president, and is a proud board member of both Karmanos Health Equity Book Club and Michigan Clinicians for Climate Action.