Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Andrea Dunn.
Hi Dr. Dunn, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
In the words of Notorious B.I.G, “It was all a dream”… LOL…as cliché as that may sound, it’s the truth! I always dreamed of becoming a doctor one day.
As a young child, I remember being very inquisitive about processes that took place inside of our bodies. I always wondered how diseases affect our bodies internally; especially after losing several family members to cancer and heart disease. I was the most fascinated by pregnant women having babies and a pretty pink liquid medicine, also known as Pepto Bismol, that always helped me feel better. Needless to say, my inquisitiveness and desire to learn more about medicinal properties and the pathophysiology of disease never wavered as I matriculated through high school and college.
During my last semester of undergraduate studies at the University of Florida, where I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Health Science Education with a Minor in Community Health, I completed a semester long internship at the Florida/Caribbean AIDS Education & Training Center. Not only did this experience have a huge impact on my life, but it completely changed the trajectory of my entire career. For years, I thought I wanted to go to medical school to become a Pediatrician, but that all changed after working alongside an Infectious Disease Clinical Pharmacy Specialist. During this internship, I had the opportunity to conduct literature reviews, update pocket cards for healthcare professionals, and I worked on research projects related to HIV treatment during pregnancy. It literally blew my mind learning how powerful highly active antiretroviral medications were at reducing HIV to undetectable levels in the blood and has the ability to prevent perinatal HIV transmission among newborn babies exposed to HIV during pregnancy. This is what we now today as “Treatment as Prevention” (TasP) and “Undetectable equals Untransmittable” (U=U). By the end of this internship, I was completely hooked to becoming a pharmacist and I changed my major to pursue pharmacy school instead of medical school.
I am a proud to say I fulfilled my dreams and graduated with my Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the prestigious, Howard University (“H-U…You know”) and completed two years of post-graduate residency training at Wolfson Children’s Hospital and AdventHealth for Children (formerly known as Florida Hospital for Children), where I specialized in Pediatric Pharmacy. Working in the profession of Pharmacy has been so fulfilling and rewarding.
Today, I’m a Board-Certified Pediatric Pharmacotherapy Specialist with more than 13 years of clinical practice experience. I am a member of the Pediatric Pharmacy Association, American College of Clinical Pharmacy, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oh no, it wasn’t smooth at all! To be honest with you, I experienced a lot of challenges and had to overcome several obstacles and hurdles to become who people know and see as “Dr. Dunn.” During public speaking engagements, I often tell people “The ‘dream’ is free, but the hustle is sold separately. In order to make it through hardships, you must be willing to bet on and invest in yourself… because if you don’t, nobody else is going to do it for you.” Many people see me now and they think I have it all together, but I don’t. I’m just a vessel following God’s lead and an example of what faith, hard work, dedication, and persistence looks like. Trust me, it took a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and elbow grease to get to where I am today and I definitely don’t “look like” what I’ve been through, but God!
Despite growing up in a single-parent household, experiencing childhood trauma, rape and molestation, I continued to push through and always vowed to myself to never give up on my dreams. Some of my greatest strengths and attributes are: (1) the ability to see the good in everything, no matter what (Romans 8:28) and (2) having an optimistic outlook on life believing I can do anything with God’s help (Philippians 4:13). I learned at a very early age how to channel my pain and energy into positive and productive things; I was a straight A student and my church, family/friends, school, and work were my outlets that kept me going.
My parents couldn’t afford to pay for me to go to college, but that didn’t stop me! To God be the glory, I received an academic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in addition to federal grants and was blessed to graduate with my bachelor’s degree in Health Science Education completely debt-free! For pharmacy school, I did have to take out student loans to attend Howard, but I paid all of my private student loans off and my federal loans will be soon forgiven through the Temporary Expanded Public Service Student Loan Forgiveness Program. #WontHeDoIt!
I am a single mother raising my handsome “son-shine” who inspires me and pushes me to be a better woman every day. He is my pride and joy, and I am strategically working to create generational wealth and a legacy to pass on to him and my grandchildren one day. It isn’t easy, but God has blessed us with a very strong support system filled with lots of love. I now know the true meaning of “it takes a village to raise a child.”
Being an advocate for HIV education, awareness, and prevention definitely comes with its own challenges. Unfortunately, I’ve experienced a lot of stigma by association and to be quite frank with you, initially, this was a huge obstacle and eye opening experience for me; getting the “side-eye” from ignorant people or those who made assumptions about me, my status, and/or trying to figure out why I’m interested in this line of work was horrible. However, through clinical practice, advocacy and outreach, I found peace in helping those in need and it challenged me more to help reduce stigma in our community. I learned how to be a voice for Black women and girls and to be unbothered by others as I joined the fight against HIV with other advocates. One thing I want people to understand is HIV-negative advocates matter too. This is why I make it a priority to provide status-neutral education in efforts to reduce stigma among those living with HIV.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I love being a pharmacist and I am very passionate about teaching pharmacy residents and student pharmacists about pediatric critical care and infectious disease (including sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS). However, for years in practice, I consistently noticed there was a need that was not being met for black and brown women and girls who looked like me.
Due to the lack of comprehensive sex education programs, alarming rates of new HIV diagnoses, and other sexually transmitted infections within my community, I decided to start a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization called Let’s Beehive!®, Inc., an acronym for Let’s Be HIV Educated! Since 2015, I have provided HIV education and prevention services to thousands of vulnerable minority women and youth in the Central Florida Area using incredibly unique “bee-themed” programs that I created such as The Queen Bee® HIV Prevention Program, Stinging Stigma™ Empowerment Program, Always Wear Your Crown™ Condom Distribution Program, and She Is PrEPalicious!® HIV Prevention Program and Media Campaign.
We live in a society where representation matters, and I strive to be the change that I want to see in this world! Being a creative and innovative healthcare professional in the HIV prevention realm, specifically for women and youth, is my superpower and I truly believe this is what has set me apart from others. It has given me great joy to help end the HIV epidemic in our community and fill the gaps of HIV prevention for cisgender Black women and youth who are often underrepresented populations in the fight against HIV.
Bringing women together each year in March to host our annual Queen Bee® Symposium in recognition of National Women and Girls Day is my happy place. It is a way to celebrate and honor women in HIV advocacy and debunk myths and break barriers among the community in efforts to help reduce stigma. For example, this year’s theme was Queen of Hearts where we focused on how love is overpowering HIV through advocacy and within two mixed status married couples and it was absolutely phenomenal.
During Women’s History Month, we launched our She is PrEPalicious!® Media Campaign funded by the Florida Department of Health. This is the first PrEP campaign with billboards, mobile advertisements, and flyers specifically targeted to cisgender Black Women and the second in the state. To date, I have helped develop collaborative partnerships with 30+ local businesses and seven faith-based organizations to increase HIV awareness, distribute HIV prevention resources, and help reduce HIV-related stigma within community-based and faith-based settings.
I am currently accepting pre-orders for my first book entitled, She is PrEPalicious® A seven-step HIV Prevention Guide for Women and Girls of Color that will be released soon. I am also super excited to share with your readers that I am working on a research grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Leadership Fellowship with two of my colleagues, Shan-Estelle Brown and Richelle Joe, where we will be working on a research project to remove obstacles to HIV prevention for Black women in our community.
It is my hope and prayer that this small glimpse of my story can be a testament to inspire others to stay focused on your dreams, push through the distractions, and keep moving forward. There are people’s lives connected to our dreams and we must continue the cycle of achieving our dreams and giving back to the community to help others in need.
If anyone is interested in learning more about Let’s Beehive!® or is interested in collaborating or donating to help us fulfill our mission, please visit our website and feel free to follow us on social media.
#themarathoncontineus #pediatricpharmcy #letsbeehive #queenbee #sheisprepalicious
Contact Info:
- Website: www.letsbeehive.org
- Instagram: @letsbeehive
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/letsbeehive.org
- Twitter: @letsbeehive
- Other: https://irleaders.org/team/removing-obstacles-to-hiv-prevention-for-black-women-in-orange-county-florida/
