We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr. Kai Ianta Burks. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kai Ianta below.

Dr. Kai Ianta, appreciate you joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

I have worked in Human Resources since college, with a BS and a Masters in Biology. I decided to follow my passion for helping underserved populations. I returned to school to get my (MPH) Masters in Public Health. After completing my MPH, I just knew it would be easy to get a job, in that field. I thought, ” I have helped so many people land a job, someone would help me”. But, boy was I wrong! I changed my resume with every referral, a million times. However, I did not receive any help on job leads or referrals.

I was sad, and depressed and started to walk 3 miles a day. I walked through every season. I watched the leaves on the trees change from green in the spring, to yellow, in the fall, and then fall off during the winter, for what seemed like forever.

Then one day I was cleaning out my nightstand and found a note that said, I will start a non-profit and name it BlackPink. It happened just like that. This was my shift.

Kai Ianta, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

When I was working on my Masters degree, I researched breast cancer and “vitamin D”. We wanted to understand the relationship between black women who were “vitamin D” deficient and breast cancer. We concluded having “vitamin D” in surplus in your body and cells, limited cancer cells from entering the cell.
I thought black women needed to know this information. This happened at a time when “vitamin D” was not a popular conversation among social media or health care professionals.

I started my nonprofit by talking to Black women about taking “vitamin D” supplements and suggested they ask their healthcare professionals to test their “vitamin D” levels when they received their physicals. Once I started talking to women about breast cancer awareness, I learned there were a lot of women who had not gotten a mammogram. They either did not have health insurance (this was a time before Obama Care) or did not have money to pay for the preventive screenings. Moreover, they had a fear of getting the exam. I then started raising money and getting funding to help women get mammograms and mammogram readings.

The more work in the community that I did, the more things were uncovered in my community of color and underserved populations.

I started connecting with medical professionals to form partnerships to start educating the community about health inequities, like hypertension, diabetes, and other health concerns. The more I talked to the black people in the community, the more I learned they did not trust the doctors. They were not trusting because they felt intimidated by medical knowledge. They didn’t ask questions to the doctors about their health. They accepted everything the doctor recommended. They often had a lot of questions but feared the doctor to ask them questions. This concerned me because each person spends more time with their body than the doctor. I truly believe there should be a partnership between each person and their health care provider.

The lapse in communication caused me to start a health and wellness podcast called “The Rhythm Notes of Health”, and dub myself “The Soul of Public Health”. The podcast was formed to connect the doctors to the community in a more intimate space.
I invite a doctor in a specific area of medicine and asked them questions that the community would have asked me. I allow them to answer, however, I don’t let them use “big” words or medical terminology that the community does not understand. I keep the conversation light and fun, we laugh a lot and use everyday examples to make sure the podcast is relatable so people can understand and continue to listen or watch.

I am proud of the comfort and connections I have made in the community about health awareness. I have doctors from all genres including mental health professionals appear on the podcast. I am even more proud of my breath campaign in which I invite people to take “5 deep breaths, 5 times a day” to relieve anxiety. I partner with local parks and recreation in which I chair the advisory board. I promote movement, and stretching through yoga.
I work with the senior centers to promote healthy aging initiatives through socialization and care.

It is my goal to connect the entire county, hospitals, schools, and politicians for healthy outcomes.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson I have had to unlearn is listening to respond. People talk to me a lot. They tell me what they are going through, their health concerns, their unhealthy habits, and their mental health concerns. I started by answering every concern they would present. After a while, I realized, sometimes people just want to vent. They don’t want a resolution or an answer, and that’s ok.
I am so focused on helping people, that I sometimes overreact to their conversations. Often people just want to vent, release, and refocus. Perhaps not at that time of releasing and venting.
My lesson is to meet people where they are at the time and be patient with their health journey. I have learned to just be quiet and listen.

The backstory is I have had relatives succumb to their health illness because I thought I didn’t do enough to help them. So I started talking a lot. I had to learn this was not my fault and release the guilt.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

When I went to college, I wanted to be a medical doctor. However, I am so happy I chose the Doctor of Public Health instead. I am a proactive person and I like putting things in place for preventative. I also like that I have a medical background to communicate with medical doctors for change. I love educating people and giving them the power to make the best decisions for their health and wellness.
This is the perfect marriage. If I could do it all over again, I would do the same thing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.blackpink.org
• Instagram: blackpinkorg
• Facebook: blackpinkorg
• Youtube: blackpingorg
• Other: Podcast- The Soul of Public Health on all podcast screening networks.

Image Credits

Kimazing Photography Atlanta