The Vice President

Virginia Davis Floyd, MD, MPH

Vice President, PROMETRA International

Visiting Scholar in Traditional Knowledge – Spelman College

Executive Director, PROMETRA USA

Virginia Davis Floyd, “Ginger” received her undergraduate education at Spelman College in Atlanta and Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. She received her MD degree from Howard University College of Medicine in 1976. She completed her residency training in internal medicine at Emory/Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta in 1979 and received her Masters of Public Health from Emory University in 1987. As a National Health Service Corps (NHSC) scholarship recipient, she established a rural based primary health care center which continues to serve as the health care nucleus for a rural Georgia community.

In 2003 Ginger was appointed as a Visiting Scholar in Traditional Knowledge at Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia where she serves as a faculty member in the Spelman Independent Scholars (SIS) Program. She currently serves as the Vice President of PROMETRA International and as the Executive Director of PROMETRA USA, a non profit, US based organization dedicated to research and educational activities within the area of traditional knowledge systems, traditional medicine and global cross cultural experiences.

From 1997 – 2002 Ginger served as the Director of Human Development and Reproductive Health for the Ford Foundation in New York City. She provided leadership for a global team of program officers in grant making activities in the US and overseas. The Foundation’s mission is to reduce poverty, promote justice and assure human dignity by supporting efforts to build strong individuals, families, communities and societies. Her program’s funding approach utilized a focus on racial, ethnic, gender and class inequalities to address issues of economic and social marginalization, environmental sustainability and reproductive health. The Ford Foundation is one of the world’s largest independent private foundations with assets of approximately 9 billion dollars and an annual grant making of 500 million dollars.

Ginger served as the Director of the Family Health Branch, Division of Public Health for the Georgia Department of Human Resources from 1984- 1997. Programs under her direction included Child and Adolescent Health, Women’s Health, WIC & Nutrition Program, Immunization, Family Planning, Children with Special Health Care Needs (Children’s Medical Services, Genetics and Children 1st Early Intervention Program). Ginger directed a staff of over 100 people and managed a budget of approximately $240 million dollars. During this period she served as a principal investigator for the World Health Organization Collaborating Center in Perinatal Care and Health Services Research in Maternal & Child Health.

In 1987, Ginger was appointed to serve as Acting Director of the Southern Regional Project by Georgia Governor Harris for the Southern Governors’ Association and Southern Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. This project coordinated infant mortality reduction activities throughout nineteen states in the Southeast region. In 1991, she was selected as one of 50 W.K. Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellows. During her three year fellowship she obtained hands on experience within, and an understanding of, indigenous cultures and traditional medicine throughout West Africa, the Caribbean, North and Central America. She continues working with indigenous African and Native American people in the area of traditional medicine and indigenous science through her work with the Association for the Promotion of Traditional Medicine (PROMETRA).

Associated Publications

Heyman, DL; Floyd, VD: Estimation of Incidence of Poliomyelitis by Survey Methods in Different Regions of the United Republic of Cameroon, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 61 (3):501-507, 1983

Floyd, RL; Floyd VD: Neonatal Intensive Care Admissions: Changing Profile in Georgia, 1974 - 1982, Southern Medical Journal, Vol 82

(7): 880-884, July 1989

Floyd, VD; Onwuachi-Saunders,C: Infant Mortality--The Public Health Approach, Atlanta Medicine, Vol 64 (3): 15-18, 1990

Floyd, VD: Too Soon, Too Small, Too Sick: Black Infant Mortality [chapter], Contemporary Health Issues: Perspectives in the Black Community, Jossey-Bass Publishers 1992

Congressional Testimony to Senate Committee on Appropriations (1991): “Women & Their Children: Prevention for a Healthy Georgia”. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health and the Environment (1989):”Federal Family Planning Program”

Brantley, M; Rochat, R; Floyd, VD: Population-Based Prevalence of Perinatal Exposure to Cocaine - Georgia, 1994, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Vol 45, No 41. October 18, 1996

Gbodossou, E; Floyd, VD; Katy, C: “AIDS in Africa: Scenarios for the Future – The Role of Traditional Medicine in Africa’s Fight Against HIV/AIDS”. UNAIDS Web Magazine, September 2003 [submitted for publication]