Teaniese “Tina” Davis, PhD, MPH
Investigator
KP Georgia Center for Research and Evaluation │ teaniese.l.davis@kp.org
Teaniese “Tina” Davis, PhD, MPH, is an Investigator at the Center for Research and Evaluation at Kaiser Permanente Georgia. She is a trained behavioral scientist with experience in qualitative research methods, intervention development, and evaluation. The formative phase of intervention development relies heavily on understanding individuals’ and groups’ experiences related to phenomena – a great match for Dr. Davis’ primary interests and skill set. Dr. Davis has extensive experience developing interview and focus group guides, eliciting robust qualitative data from individuals and groups, as well as coding and organizing qualitative data and managing coders. Dr. Davis has also successfully collaborated on manuscripts featuring her work with various populations to develop, implement, and evaluate theory-based interventions for adolescents and young adults. Health disparities have been a recurring theme in her research in examining the disproportionate burden of disease among Black young adults. Evaluating and understanding factors contributing to health disparities at KP Georgia, Dr. Davis has been focusing more time on the social, non-medical needs that impact individuals’ ability to make and sustain behavioral changes to improve their health.
Prior to joining the team at KP Georgia, Dr. Davis was research-raised in academia at Emory University and Morehouse College. Her research experience began as a front-line health educator facilitating sexual risk reduction interventions for adolescents and young adults at public health clinics and juvenile detention centers. It was this work on the birthed her interested in learning the science underlying curricula development and theory-based behavioral change strategies. She has worked with eight different teams to develop curricula – always engaging advisory boards and key stakeholders during the intervention development, adaptation, and evaluation process. Since coming to KP Georgia, Dr. Davis has widened her focus to develop curricula for adolescents and young adults with diabetes, still focusing on how to support sustained behavioral changes for groups.
Dr. Davis graduated from Spelman College with a BA in Psychology. The summer before her senior year she learned about the field of public health through the Summer Research Opportunities Program and that summer changed the trajectory of her career in the most positive way. She went on to earn her MPH from University of Maryland, College Park and her PhD in Health Promotion and Behavior from University of Georgia. Dr. Davis is also an adjunct Assistant Professor at Emory University Rollins School of Public Health.
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