She received her bachelors degree from UCLA and earned two masters degrees along with her doctorate at Columbia University in New York (also where Dr. Ruth trained!). During grad school and a post-doctoral fellowship for the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Sonjia conducted research on s*x problems, s*xually transmitted diseases, and s*xual satisfaction. Her early faculty appointments were at Ne
w York University and the City University of New York, where she taught human s*xuality. In 2003, Dr. Sonjia was recruited to teach at the medical school in the Cayman Islands, where she also provided s*xual health counseling and wrote a popular s*x column in the local newspaper. The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine recruited Dr. Sonjia in 2008 to develop programs addressing HIV in Miami-Dade county, which has the highest rates of new HIV infections in the America. Upon joining UM, Dr. Sonjia immediately distinguished herself and met with President Obama’s AIDS czar in Washington D.C. In 2010, the Miami Herald recognized Dr. Sonjia as one of Miami’s top 20 leaders under 40 years old. Published in academic journals, books, magazines, and newspapers, her series of interviews with Caribbean women living with HIV earned international recognition and was nominated for a human rights journalism award. In addition to serving as a professor of Family Medicine and Community Health, Dr. Sonjia is on the faculty of Florida International University (FIU) and volunteers weekly as an aerobics instructor at a women’s shelter in Overtown, Miami.
