Speaker
Debra Fraser-Howze
Debra Fraser-Howze is the founder of Choose Healthy Life, a sustainable, scalable and transferable approach to addressing public health disparities through the Black church. She is also the principal of D. Fraser Associates, a consulting firm that works with clients to establish successful partnerships that result in improved health outcomes for underserved populations while driving corporate value and revenue growth. Ms. Fraser-Howze founded Choose Healthy Life in October 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic after seeing the disproportionate death and inequitable health impact it was having on the Black community. As part of Choose Healthy Life she established the National Black Clergy Health Leadership Council, co-chaired by civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton (National Action Network) and eminent theologian Rev. Calvin O. Butts III (Abyssinian Baptist Church). Before founding Choose Healthy Life and launching D. Fraser Associates, Ms. Fraser-Howze was senior vice president, government and external affairs, at OraSure Technologies. While there, she played a critical role in launching the company’s OraQuick In-Home HIV Test (2012) and the OraQuick Rapid HCV Test (2010). She was also instrumental in securing $30 million in government funding for the clinical development of the company’s OraQuick Rapid Ebola Test (2015) and OraQuick Rapid Zika Test (2016). Prior to joining OraSure, Ms. Fraser-Howze served as president/CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, an organization she founded in 1987. She has been widely recognized for more than three decades of global leadership to communities of color regarding teenage pregnancy, social welfare, and HIV and AIDS. Among her many accomplishments, she has advised two U.S. presidents while serving on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS from 1995 to 2001. In 2009, she received the National Medical Association’s highest honor, the Scroll of Merit, and in 2010 she was inducted into the Hunter College Hall of Fame for distinguished achievement. Ms. Fraser-Howze is currently a member of the board of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She holds a master’s degree in public health administration from Hunter College and resides in East Stroudsburg, Pa.