Benton was recently named the community mobilization coordinator at AIDS Partnership Michigan (APM) to lead efforts in managing the organization’s HIV/STD Hotline and mobilization project Status Sexy, a Michigan Department of Community Health funded strategic initiative to increase HIV testing, decrease stigmatization of HIV/AIDS and offer support African American adolescents and young adult gay, bisexual and transgender women in Detroit.
Benton will also be involved in executing the groundbreaking US People Living with HIV Stigma Index, a pilot initiative that documents experiences of stigma and discrimination to gain knowledge and skills to teach PLHIV tools to measure, detect and act on the changing trends in relation to stigma.
While the stigma of HIV is as old as our discovery of the disease, Benton said she is excited to join other trailblazers who are advocates for people whose voices are gradually becoming more heard than ever before in history.
Benton also noted that this recent development will allow her to continue her work in health care and particularly HIV/AIDS. While she acknowledges how far health care has come, she also understands how far it has to go. Through her experiences, even at a young age, she believes there is no rigid formula for delivering health care; rather, each situation must be examined through an individualized holistic lens and considered in the context of our many cultural differences. Her life plan is to continue impacting the public health community through more cutting-edge approaches that will outlive her.
Early on, she developed a passion for understanding cultural differences in the context of health care. Now, more than 20 years later, with a Bachelor of Art Degree in Anthropology and a Master of Public Health Degree (MPH), Benton is a public health professional with extensive experience in practical and research-based work with persons living with HIV and AIDS, both domestically and abroad. Particularly interested in the way HIV/AIDS affects marginalized populations; she has dedicated her career to the advancement of those communities.
While pursing her MPH in Florida, Benton was afforded an opportunity to work with a research study that adapted the renowned HIV behavioral health intervention, Healthy Relationships™, from an in-person intervention to one which used video-conferencing technology. Her work in Florida led to an opportunity with Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute’s Maternal Health Clinic in South Africa. In urban Johannesburg, she researched the potential of implementing a tailored, interactive, kiosk-based program within clinic waiting areas to enable women living with HIV to receive culturally appropriate reproductive health information. Benton recognized the importance of finding solutions that encouraged truth and progress.
Following her work in South Africa, Benton considered a number of career opportunities. Although she felt privileged and humbled to work abroad, she thought of her hometown. She felt compelled to return to Michigan, which at that time was losing two-thirds of its college graduates to out-of-state or country jobs, and she felt particularly compelled to return to Detroit, which faces staggering HIV rates. Since her return to Detroit, she has been committed to encouraging an honest dialogue that fosters destigmatization of marginalized populations and practical implementation of programs and services that improve the quality of life for people living with HIV.