Oni Blackstock facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Oni Blackstock
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| Born | 1977/1978 (age 47–48) |
| Alma mater | Harvard University Harvard School of Medicine |
| Relatives | Uché Blackstock (sister) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Albert Einstein College of Medicine New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene |
Oni Blackstock is an American doctor and researcher who works to improve healthcare for everyone. She is an expert in treating HIV, a virus that can harm the body's immune system. Dr. Blackstock is the founder of a company called Health Justice. This company works to make sure that a person's race does not affect the quality of healthcare they receive.
She once worked for the New York City Department of Health. There, she led the city's efforts to fight the HIV epidemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she gave important advice to New Yorkers. She helped people with HIV understand how to stay safe from COVID-19.
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Early Life and Schooling
Blackstock and her twin sister, Uché, grew up in Brooklyn, New York. They both went to the famous Stuyvesant High School. After high school, they both decided to study medicine at Harvard University.
Blackstock was inspired by her mother, Dale Gloria Blackstock. Her mother was also a doctor who studied at Harvard. She was a nephrologist, a doctor who treats kidney problems. Her mother got into Harvard through a program called affirmative action. This program helps give students from all backgrounds a fair chance to attend top universities. Sadly, Blackstock's mother died from leukemia when she was only 47.
After Harvard, Blackstock trained to be a doctor at Montefiore Medical Center. She also studied HIV treatment at Harlem Hospital Center and was part of a special program at Yale School of Medicine.
A Career Helping Others
Dr. Blackstock's work focuses on finding the best ways to manage HIV, especially for women and other groups who often face challenges in getting good healthcare. She believes that to stop the spread of HIV, we must understand how unfairness based on race or gender can affect a person's health.
She noticed that women often act as caregivers for their families. This means they sometimes put the health of their loved ones before their own. Dr. Blackstock's research aims to find ways to support these women.
Fighting HIV in New York City
In 2017, Dr. Blackstock received a special award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The award helped her start a project to prevent HIV in communities that needed it most, like East Harlem and The Bronx.
A year later, in 2018, she became an assistant commissioner for the New York City Department of Health. In this role, she helped lead the city's fight against HIV. She worked on important campaigns to help people stay healthy. One of her goals was to make sure communities most affected by HIV, including women of color and LGBT people, knew about a medicine called PrEP. PrEP can help prevent people from getting HIV.
She also launched the Made Equal campaign. This was part of a bigger project that shared an important message: when HIV is treated so well that it can't be detected in a person's blood, they cannot pass the virus to others. Thanks to these efforts, the number of new HIV cases in New York City dropped by 67% from 2001 to 2019.
Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Dr. Blackstock and her twin sister were on the front lines in New York City. She saw that the virus was affecting people of color more than others. She called the situation a "pandemic of inequality" because it showed how some groups did not have the same resources to stay healthy.
Dr. Blackstock worked hard to give clear advice to people with HIV on how to protect themselves from the new virus. She and the health department also created guides on how to slow the spread of the virus. They advised that being careful about close contact with others was the safest way to avoid getting sick.
Personal Life
Dr. Blackstock uses social media, especially Twitter, to share information and her experiences as a doctor. In 2019, Out magazine recognized her for her amazing work in helping to end the HIV epidemic.
Her twin sister, Uché Blackstock, is also a doctor. She works in emergency medicine and runs a company called Advancing Health Equity, which also works to make healthcare fair for everyone.
