Dilsey Davis

Dilsey Davis is a senior creative lead and narrative researcher within RTI's Transformational Research Unit for Equity where she leads the Narrative Research and Community Engagement Lab (The Narrative Lab). The Narrative Lab works in collaboration with communities and organizations to co-create new narratives and advance the evidence base of structural solutions that drive systems-level change. Informed by research and in partnership with community, she helps develop, curate, disseminate, and evaluate multi-platform stories. 

Ms. Davis has more than 25 years of experience producing and directing short- and long-form narrative and documentary projects, multimedia marketing campaigns, and national and international communication initiatives that focus on health, financial education, equity, and social justice. She is an expert in creating entertaining and educational content by incorporating her knowledge of communication and social marketing theories, public health training, and qualitative research.

Ms. Davis has over 15 years of experience in the HIV field creating content for health clinicians and developing stories with and for communities experiencing high prevalence of HIV in the United States and South Africa. She produced and directed SisterLove’s "Everyone Has a Story", a series of short documentary vignettes expressing the wisdom and experiences of African American HIV+ women. More recently, she has been developing content and products for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC's) HIV Prevention and Treatment Continuum of Care for Health Care Providers. She conducted and analyzed interviews with health care providers to create the Clinicians Chat video series; developed promotional content for HIV Nexus; produced video training content for the Red Carpet Entry (RCE) program, which facilitates linkage to HIV medical care within 72 hours of initial contact with newly diagnosed and out-of-care HIV patients; and produced scripted videos to model how health care providers can discuss PrEP and Treatment as Prevention (TasP) with their patients.

Her latest project within the Narrative Lab, the documentary film HEART: Serving Our Neighbors in Crisis details the development and implementation of the new alternative response program in Durham, North Carolina called HEART (Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Team), which works to enhance public safety through community-centered approaches to prevention and intervention as alternates to the criminal legal system.

Additional projects include her film Now Let Us Sing broadcast on PBS and screened at film festivals, including Cucalorus and DOC NYC, and Rissi Palmer: Still Here, which premiered on the American Masters series and is currently available on PBS digital. She has also produced and directed four documentary shorts for ITVS/Independent Lens's Stories for Social Justice including Daughters of Addiction, which examines the unprecedented surge in the number of women behind bars in Eastern Tennessee in which nearly all cases involve substance misuse.