Superwoman Strength: Dr. Allison Mathews Talks Legacy, Business, and Beauty Secrets
Dr. Allison Mathews exemplifies the term “Superwoman” and her go-getter spirit shines brightly. As a public health professional for nearly 10 years, Mathews has excelled in areas of HIV cure research and community engagement. Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, this Howard University and UNC-Chapel Hill Alum is the Founder of the 2BeatHIV project and recently launched Community Expert Solutions, LLC, a business promoting digital case management with products such as Digital LinCS to connect people living with HIV/AIDS to wrap-around services. Still, the road to superwoman success was not paved in gold. It took hard work, dedication, and supportive peers to close the deal for this budding entrepreneur. Join the movement by donating at CommunityExpertSolutions.com!
Who is Dr. Allison Mathews and what is your superpower?
As a person, everything I do is informed by who I am and how I was raised. I’m from Dallas, Texas and my family is from Louisiana. We come from a long line of educators, sharecroppers, and musicians so my grandmothers were both educators with graduate degrees in a time when Black women were not even graduating from high school. I come from this legacy of strong Black women who pushed the importance of education and creativity. I got into photography at the age of 15 and my uncle lets me borrow my first camera. I won poetry awards and was published. Still, I wanted to learn how to bridge the gap between art and social justice so I found research was a great way to do that. My superpower is empathy. I feel I identify with people’s issues and that is how I am able to help them.
Your passion for the community is inspiring, what sparked the flame for entrepreneurship?
Community Expert Solutions, LLC is a consulting company I stared in 2017 and we use crowdsourcing to get the community involved on how to solve their own health problems. Some examples you may have seen of crowdsourcing are Wikipedia and Kickstarter. We are interested in getting people’s ideas on how to solve problems in their community. We are working to develop the platform Digital LinCS from the feedback we’ve received from the community. We are not just focusing on you going to the doctor but how can people access free or reduced medication, transportation, housing, and other wrap-around services that people need to make their whole lives better. Digital LinCS automates that process by having them complete a survey so we can complete those applications on their behalf.
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