Dr. Takeisha Charles Davis was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana.
After surviving being stabbed three times in her senior year of high school,
Dr. Davis entered Xavier University of Louisiana with a desire to serve the
public through the field of medicine. Dr. Davis’ passion for medicine was
nurtured at Xavier, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and cultivated
at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she earned her
Doctorate of Medicine. During her Pediatric Residency at Children’s Medical
Center in Dallas, Dr. Davis was selected to serve as Chief Resident and
decided to forego a fellowship opportunity to pursue a more nontraditional
the career path of becoming a public health physician and healthcare
administrator.

After securing a Master's in Public Health from the Harvard School of
Public Health in 2005, Dr. Davis returned to the Louisiana Department of
Health and Hospitals where she supervised the clinical aspects of the Special Needs Shelter and Temporary Medical Operations and Staging Area opened at Nicholls State University to serve over 20,000 residents evacuated during Hurricane Katrina. Over the next 10 years, she served in various positions for the State of Louisiana, including the last five years as the Director of the Center for Community and Preventive Health, Office of Public Health Medical Director, and Assistant State Health Officer for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. In this capacity, she directed public health services delivered through 70 clinics statewide, the state laboratory, and the state pharmacy Dr. Davis’ experience in clinical care, community engagement, and healthcare systems led to her selection to serve as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the New Orleans East Hospital in January 2016.

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At NOEH, Dr. Davis is committed to reducing disparities in health outcomes and
promoting health equity by focusing on evidence-based, clinical, and population health initiatives. Since taking the helm as the only African American Female Hospital CEO in the State of Louisiana, Dr. Davis has grown the hospital’s admissions and outpatient visits annually, overseen capital expansion, improved quality scores, and increased profit margins by implementing expense controls.

In addition, she has championed public health initiatives and innovation including starting a Diabetes Center of Excellence in partnership with the National Diabetes and Research Institute and the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Davis continues to chart her own path as a founding member of Achieving Awesome Things Through Inspired Actions (AATTIA), an empowerment group for adolescents. Through this association and Taylor Made Medical Consulting LLC, established by Dr. Davis in 2006, she is able to support and encourage young people to achieve their greatest potential. This led to a
preventive health lecture series with incarcerated youth and a feature story in “Against All Odds...Celebrating Black Women in Medicine”.

 

Dr. Davis has received numerous awards in recognition of her work including being named to the 2018 Becker’s Hospital Review’s Annual List of 143 Women Hospital and Health System Leaders to Know. She is a well sought-after speaker and thought leader on issues of public health, healthcare administration, and health equity and served on the Health Transition Committees for both Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell. Recently, in response to her leadership in providing lifesaving care to patients in a COVID 19 hotspot and sounding the alarm regarding disparate health outcomes she was appointed to serve on Louisiana’s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force Executive Committee and Centene Corporation’s National Health Disparities Task Force.

Dr. Davis currently serves on the governing boards of the New Orleans Medical Association, New Orleans Business Alliance, Camp AATTIA, and United Way of Southeast Louisiana. She is also a member of The National Medical Association, Links, Incorporated, Pontchartrain (LA) Chapter, and is a Past-President of the Louisiana Public Health Association. True to her New Orleans roots, Dr. Davis proudly serves as the President and Founding Parade Captain for the Mystic Krewe of Femme Fatale, the first predominately African American female-led Mardi Gras organization in New Orleans. However, Dr. Davis’ greatest joy comes from raising her
only son, Waymon Davis Jr.