Cynthia Boddie-Willis to Speak at Winter Commencement Exercises

Posted by: admin on December 7, 2015, No Comments

Cynthia Boddie-Willis will be the keynote speaker for East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania’s winter commencement ceremony on Saturday, December 12, at 8:45 a.m. in Koehler Fieldhouse.

Ms. Boddie-Willis is the granddaughter of Gertrude Mary Smith Boddie, a 1904 alumna of ESU and the first student of color to graduate from any of the Pennsylvania State Normal Schools (which now comprise the State System of Higher Education). An endowed scholarship fund in Ms. Boddie’s name has been established by ESU and supports annual awards to students of color with a commitment to social justice demonstrated through community and/or university service.

Ms. Boddie-Willis earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago in 1971, where she completed requirements for a doctorate in medicine some years later. In 1997, she earned a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University.

She began her professional career as a primary care physician in Chicago and worked for more 25 years in that capacity. She also spent 11 years as the director of the Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in Boston. There she was responsible for programs funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that focused on the health and wellbeing of individuals with chronic disease and disabilities.

After leaving Boston, in 2009, Ms. Boddie-Willis directed the Health Services Policy and Research Unit of The Hilltop Institute at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Under her guidance, The Hilltop Institute assisted state health agencies, local health departments, and health service delivery organizations in implementing, monitoring, and evaluating the quality, affordability, and sustainability of publically funded health care services.

Although she retired from a staff position in June of this year, Ms. Boddie-Willis has continued to work as a consultant for The Hilltop Institute on projects funded by the National Institutes of Health. She currently oversees the development of protocols for key informant interviews of clinical and administrative personnel at an outpatient healthcare site and conducts analyses of those interviews to inform recommendations on whether and how computerized alcohol screening and basic intervention processes may be integrated seamlessly into the routine delivery of primary care services.

Ms. Boddie-Willis resides in Montgomery County, Md., a convenient point of departure for trips to Illinois and Pennsylvania to visit her children and grandchildren.