Dr. Sonjia Kenya is a clinical sexologist and health equity scientist who serves as a Full Professor in the Departments of of Medicine and Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She received her bachelors degree from University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and earned two masters degrees and her doctorate at Columbia University in New York (also where Dr. Ruth trained!).
Dr. Sonjia has thrived during her long and productive career in academic medicine that has been highlighted with large federal grants supporting her innovative research aimed at increasing health equity. Notably, she founded the CHAMP HIV prevention program, which has grown into the largest street-based sexual wellness clinic in Miami-Dade County led by community health workers. She also created the CREW research training program, which prepares scholars from the U.S. Virgin Islands, a designated health professional shortage area, to develop healthcare careers to attenuate the persistent healthcare shortage plaguing this predominantly Black U.S. territory.
Dr. Sonjia is an energetic, eternal optimist whose personal interests inform her scientific pursuits. For example, she is also a yoga instructor, author of the best-selling book Sex in South Beach, and host of the Sex in South Beach podcast. Bringing these skills into academic medicine has led to breast cancer survivors participating in yoga for better sex workshops, educational series to improve sexual healthcare delivery, abortion training research, and participating in student-led sexual health events, such as 'Sex Night' which addresses the sexual health questions of undergraduate students attending the University of Miami. In her free time, Dr. Sonjia runs a small business, Dignified Health Solutions, which produces natural products and experiences to enhance sexual well-being, including Yoga for Better Sex and Sense Aromatherapy Body Oil.
Her early faculty appointments were at New York University and the City University of New York, where her human sexuality classes consistently exceeded enrollment capacity. The University of Miami (UM) School of Medicine recruited Dr. Sonjia in 2007 to develop programs addressing HIV in Miami-Dade County, which persistently suffers some of the highest rates of new HIV infections in America. Since then, she has made tremendous scientific contrutions towards improving sexual health and leads some of the most rigorous research programs in the county. While improving sexual health outcomes through her research and training programs at UM, Dr. Sonjia frequently educates lay people through public speaking events and media appearances.
Dr. Sonjia’s scientific accomplishments have been featured in dozens of academic journals, lay publications, and the multi media outlets. On Juneteenth 2024, she received a proclamation to the the City of Miami from Mayors Daniella Levine and Frances Suarez. In 2023, She was featured as South Florida's Educator of the year and graced the cover of Legacy Magazine. In 2022, she received the Sapphire Award from the Florida Blue Foundation for being a Health Equity Champion for the State of Florida. She has also been honored with numerous other awards for her contributions to community health and medical education.
Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Gilead Pharmaceuticals, and the Department of Health. Her research findings have led to significant changes in sexual health policies. She previously addressed the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief with President Obama’s AIDS czar and currently partners with the Florida Department of Health, directing a comprehensive street-based HIV/AIDS outreach program designed to prevent new infections, increase HIV testing rates, and improve outcomes among people living with HIV. When she's not working, Dr. Sonjia loves to spends time with her family, play tennis, travel, and volunteer as a yoga instructor in under-resourced minority communities.
Recent Honors
Recent Speaking Engagements
2024 - Sex Night, University of Miami Coral Gables Campus
2019 - The Science of Seduction, La Perla, Bal Harbour
2019 – Sex After 50 Series: Miami Herald Aging Well Series
2018 – Keynote Graduation Speaker, International Institute for Clinical Sexology
2018 -Licked: the Art of Oral Sex, the World Erotic Art Museum
2018 -Florida International University, Women’s Sexual Empowerment Summit
2018 -United Way of Miami-Dade County, Sex after 50, 60, and 70
2018 -Planned Parenthood, Sex After Trauma
For over a decade Dr. Sonjia has Sonjia has been teaching Yoga for Better Sex, a chakra-based movement workshop that unleashes sensual energy and aligns physical expression with sexual intentions. Yoga for Better Sex was recently released online to empower adults with a feel-good, home-based strategy to nurture optimal sexual well-being.
Aromatherapy for your skin! Feel good AND smell good with Dr. Sonjia's SENSE aromatherapy body oil. Made from essentail oils that organically fire up your senses to ignites a pleasing reaction in everyone who smells you. Of course SENSE also repels mosquitos because being eaten should feel good!"
Ready for unlimited eargasms? The Sex in South Beach podcast can spice up your daily commute and improve your love life! In just 15 minutes, you'll learn sexual science that will suprise you and sometimes make you laugh out loud! Satch up on all the sex ed you missed in school and explore new ways to level up your love life.
Born in San Francisco, California and raised by civil rights activists, Dr. Sonjia now lives in South Beach, Florida with her attorney husband and brilliant son. After years of trying to fix sex and intimacy problems among her patients, Dr. Sonjia started focusing on how to make sex better, hoping people could prevent problems before they start!
Sex is the elephant in the room. No one talks about it and America suffers more sex problems than most developed nations. Good sex improves relationships and helps couples stay together. Long-lasting, fulfilling relationships are linked to better health, more happiness, increased wealth, and reduced risk for sex problems! Who wouldn’t want all that good stuff?
To get good at sex, or anything else, you’ve got to learn the ropes. Dr. Sonjia helps you learn and have fun along the way!
Let’s face it: America has nearly banned sex education. Few know how to develop sex skills and there are not many places to learn. As a result, relationships are less fulfilling, people cheat, contract STDs, and divorces are more common than ever! Plus, people are living longer, surviving all types of cancers, and coping with chronic diseases that have sexual side effects most doctors never discuss. When it comes to sex education, Americans have so many unmet needs!
To improve our ability to make better love, Dr. Sonjia provides education to develop better bedroom skills, including making awkward conversations easier, conditioning your brain and body for better sex, and mastering specific sexual activities to increase sensual pleasure.
Disguised as a fun-loving, free-spirit, Dr. Sonjia knows her science, knows when to get another expert involved, and knows how to entertain as she educates.
Her academic work is recognized internationally, but she knows people learn best when they laugh, so she engages audiences with witty humor while providing serious sex education. Trained in New York as a stand-up comedian during grad school, Dr. Sonjia uses funny anecdotes to get her message across so people smile while learning strategies to enhance sexual satisfaction. When she wrote her weekly sex column published for the Miami Sun Post, she surveyed adults in bars about their sex lives and provided education on challenges normal people experience in bed.
Smart, straight forward, and spicier than hot sauce, Dr. Sonjia serves up sex ed with a scientific style and smile that reflects today’s America!
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