Dr. Benator completed her undergraduate education at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia and graduated from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. She trained in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and completed her training in the Washington Hospital Center/VAMC Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. She became a member of the faculty in 1995.
Dr. Benator directs the Infectious Disease and HIV Primary Care Clinic Program at the VAMC, an integrated patient-centered program with more than 25 physicians and nurse practitioners, on-site HIV psychology, social work, pharmacy hepatology and hepatitis C treatment, diabetes specialty and an HIV hepatitis C nurse navigator.
Dr. Benator directs the Fellow Outpatient Clinic Teaching Program at the VAMC and the Fellow HIV Treatment Didactic. She also partners with the DC Department of Health TB Clinic to provide additional infectious disease fellow training opportunities.
Research
Her areas of research interest include tuberculosis, HIV Infection and HIV co-morbidities. Dr. Benator is principal investigator and a program director in the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium (TBTC), an international CDC-funded clinical trials group since 1995. Her scientific focus has been tuberculosis diagnostics research and she leads a TBTC partnership with Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
Locally, she is the VAMC principal investigator for cross-DC institution NIH-funded HIV research including the DC Cohort.
Dr. Benator has been a member of Alpha Omega Alpha since 1984 and was awarded the VA Secretary’s Hero Award in 2005.
- Lyon, Maureen; Caceres, Sarah; Scott, Rachel; Benator, Debra; Briggs, Linda; Greenberg, Isabella; D'Angelo, Lawrence; Cheng, Yao; Wang, Jichuan. Advance Care Planning: Complex & Working Longitudinal Trajectory of Congruence in End-of-Life Treatment Preferences: A RCT. Am J Hosp Palliat Care . 2021 Feb 3
- Grill KB, Wang J, Scott RK, Benator D, D'Angelo LJ, Lyon ME; Palliative Care Consortium. What Do Adults With HIV Want? End-of-Life Care Goals, Values and Beliefs by Gender, Race, Sexual Orientation. Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2021 Jan 19
- Wallace DE, Horberg MA, Benator DA, Greenberg AE, Castel AD, Monroe AK, Happ LP; DC Cohort Executive Committee. Diabetes mellitus control in a large cohort of people with HIV in care-Washington, D.C. AIDS Care. 2020 Aug 18:1-11
- Secco AA, Akselrod H, Czeresnia J, Levy M, Byrne M, Monroe A, Lucar J, Horberg M, cast AD, Doshi R, Rivasplata H, Squires L, Parenti D, Benator on behalf of the DC Cohort Executive Committee Sexually transmitted infections in person living with HIV infection and estimated HIV transmission risk: trends over time from the DC Cohort. Sexually Transmitted Infections, 2020;96:89-95. PMID: 31907326
- Levy ME, Monroe AK, Horberg MA, Benator DA, Castel AD; DC Cohort Executive Committee. Is low-level viraemia associated with serum lipid profiles among HIV controllers?. HIV Med. 2020;21(7):e14-e16. doi:10.1111/hiv.12856. PMID: 32311819
- Lyon ME, Squires L, Scott RK, Benator D, Briggs L, Greenberg IH, D'Angelo LJ, Cheng YI, Wang J. Effect of FAmily CEntered (FACE) advance care planning on longitudinal congruence in end-of-life treatment preferences: A Randomized Controlled Trial. AIDS and Behavior. May, 2020; DOI: 10.1007/s10461-020-02909-y. PMID: 32399799