CLBA Health Care Initiative: Dr. Ida Tafari, Indigenous Ethnobotany

H20 Network

Ida Vintes Tafari is a socio-cultural medical anthropologist and currently teaches as Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Department of the School of Nursing, Barry University Miami Fl. She has worked on many research agenda’s in South Florida, the Caribbean and Africa focusing on myths, rituals, dietary practices, mysticism and indigenous ethnobotany which continues to be popular today. Dr. Tafari served as visiting professor and adjunct professor at FIU in the Department of Global Studies, Africa and African Diaspora Studies, and Public health over the past decade. She completed a three year Post Doctorial study through the Comprehensive Drug Research Center at the University of Miami Medical School. Of special interest to Dr. Tafari currently is the integration of traditional medicine into the national health care biomedical system. The systematic study of the rich heritage of knowledge, skills, and practices based on theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures that are used to maintain health, as well as to prevent, diagnose, improve or treat physical and mental illness is at the forefront of her health promotion agenday.