Dr Cindy Firnhaber heads Right to Care's Cervical Cancer programme. Dr Cynthia (Cindy) Firnhaber joined the Clinical HIV Research Unit (CHRU) at its formation in 1997. CHRU is a research partner of Right to Care. Cindy has been heading the Right to Care's Cervical Cancer programme since 2008.
Cindy’s experience includes research assistant at Valparaiso University and University of Michigan in the area of cytogenetics, evaluating carcinogenic effects on chromosomes. She then worked at the Eleanor Roosevelt Cancer Institute working on oncogenic expression in lung cancer. After medical school, she spent six months volunteering at Musami Mission in Zimbabwe as a medical officer, where her interest in infectious disease was sparked. Over the years that followed she was in private practice in Denver (Colorado), joined CHRU, and had a returned to Infectious Diseases division as Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado before returning to CHRU in 2004. In 2008, she moved to Right to Care in order undertake the implementation of cervical cancer screening to HIV positive women.
Cindy has been taking care of HIV patients for 20 years. In the last two years, Cindy has received or participated in two Centre for Aids Research grants, one from University of North Carolina and the other one from Brown University in Rhode Island. In the year under review, she fulfilled the roles of Deputy Director and Senior Investigator.
Cindy has a Bachelor of Science (Valparaiso University), Master of Science in Human Genetics (University of Michigan), MD at University of Colorado. Internal Medicine specialist St Joseph’s Hospital Denver Colorado, and a Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (University of Witwatersrand).