Dr. Cynthia Cannon Poindexter is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Social Services at Fordham University-Marymount. She has been a human services practitioner for 28 years, the last 17 of which have been spent full-time in the HIV field. For eight years she conducted volunteer and professional training, fund-raising, case management, advocacy, counseling, crisis intervention, program development and administration for PALSS, the first AIDS service organization in South Carolina.

Since leaving PALSS, Dr. Poindexter has consulted with seven local and state AIDS service programs in Boston and Chicago. She has taught graduate students in social work at Boston University, Fordham University-Marymount and the University of Illinois-Chicago. She has also been a trainer for the HIV/AIDS Service Administration of New York City, Massachusetts Department of Public Health HIV Division, Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center, National Association of Social Workers HIV Spectrum Project, New England AIDS Education and Training Center, South Carolina AIDS Training Network and Southeast AIDS Education and Training Center.

Dr. Poindexter has served as an associate with the National HIV Research Center and as a board member of the National Association of HIV Over Fifty. She has received nine HIV-related research grants: four to study training needs and five to study older HIV-affected caregivers. She has written approximately 45 HIV-related, published, peer-reviewed articles, chapters, essays and reviews.