#NNPA BlackPress

Prairie View Alums Partner to Keep “CAWLM” with New Animal Clinic in Third Ward

ABOVE: Dr. Huey Paul Beckham, Jr., Dr. Keisha Burnett, and Dr. Aziza Glass pose inside the lobby of the CAWLM Veterinary Hospital (Photo by J. Raphael’s Photography) Three Prairie View A&M University alumni have come together to provide animal care for the Third Ward community. CAWLM (4902 San Jacinto St) offers a wide range of […]
The post Prairie View Alums Partner to Keep “CAWLM” with New Animal Clinic in Third Ward first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 years ago

November 15, 2023

Forward Times Staff

ABOVE: Dr. Huey Paul Beckham, Jr., Dr. Keisha Burnett, and Dr. Aziza Glass pose inside the lobby of the CAWLM Veterinary Hospital (Photo by J. Raphael’s Photography)

Three Prairie View A&M University alumni have come together to provide animal care for the Third Ward community. CAWLM (4902 San Jacinto St) offers a wide range of services, from grooming and dentistry to surgery and radiology. The doctors sat down with the Forward Times to discuss their clinic, lives and careers.

Dr. Aziza Glass is a native Houstonian and PV graduate who primarily focuses on integrative medicine, with an emphasis on acupuncture. Dr. Huey Paul Beckham, Jr. is also a native Houstonian who pursued veterinary medicine after two decades in the military. Dr. Keisha Burnett (from Kendleton, TX) is a general practitioner whose interests include internal medicine and soft tissue surgery.

“I actually never had pets growing up,” Dr. Glass says. “It was a compromise for me to get fish my senior year in high school.” Her mom disliked animals: “She thought that they all carry diseases.” At one point, young Aziza swiped a turtle from a golf course: “That was the extent of my pet ownership until I really got to vet school. But I always loved learning about animals.”

“And then my other interest or passion was the arts. So I loved everything about music, and I loved performing and being on stage.” Like her sisters, she attended Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts: “At HSPVA, I kind of felt like an oddball, because I knew that I liked performing, but I also saw so many talented people who seemed like they would be stars as soon as they graduated. And I definitely questioned whether or not I had the same type of talent as all these other people; it seemed like it was just oozing out of their pores. But I also knew that I had a very strong STEM background, because my parents were always pushing academics.”

That push paid off. Her father met a recruiter for a summer internship: REAP. The Research Extension Apprentice Program (REAP) is a thirteen-day summer camp for high school juniors and seniors, helping college-bound students better understand careers in agriculture and food sciences. “Both of my parents are Prairie View alums. So they said, ‘You’re going to PV.’ That was my first time even knowing about the world of College of Agriculture,” she says.

“It was like the first or second day of the program,” Dr. Glass recalls, “and we were castrating piglets and giving iron injections.” She volunteered to do the procedure first. “And from that first castration, I was hooked.” She changed her major from civil engineering to animal science. “I knew that I wanted to study and learn about animals; it would have never even occurred to me to go down the veterinary route,” she says, until sophomore year. During a summer internship, she pondered her choices: “I knew I was going to grad school. I knew I was going to become Dr. Aziza. But I thought it was going to be the Ph.D route. And when I realized that a veterinarian is also a doctor, I said: ‘I can do that too, and still learn about animals.’” She did, graduating from PV with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture in 2010. She earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Cornell University in 2015.

Dr. Keisha Burnett and Dr. Aziza Glass perform routine check-up (Photo by J. Raphael’s Photography)

“I was exposed to veterinary medicine when I was six years old,” Dr. Beckham shares. His mother’s uncle was a technician (known as “porters” in the ‘70s). “I got started with him. We called him Uncle Joe. We’d go visit him on Bissonnet St. It was called Live Oak Animal Hospital. And that’s where I got my first start.”

Dr. Beckham’s father owned horses and land: “50 acres in Prairie View. So I was always exposed to animals, dogs, cats, horses, and cattle.” He also predicted his son’s career: “He said, ‘You will become my veterinarian, Huey,’” he remembers. “And being around veterinarians and technicians all my life, I realized: ‘This is what I want to do,’ even though I didn’t pursue it wholeheartedly until I got to college. But it was destiny for me. And being around horses kind of solidified me being a veterinarian,” he says. “I’m Creole; you go to Louisiana, everybody has a horse in their backyard. So being around that area and being around people who are horse-minded, horse owners…It was just destiny.”

After graduating from PV in 1986, Beckham went to the Army. But after two years, “I said, ‘This is not what I want to do.’ So I got out, went back to Prairie View, started the master’s program.” After discussing his future with his father and PV agricultural science professor Dr. Wendell Baker, Beckham decided to attend vet school at Tuskegee – in part, he says, because “I did not want to be involved with the mind game of going to a predominantly white university for vet school.” He earned a doctorate of veterinary medicine from Tuskegee in 1993.

“My story is a little more tragic,” reveals Dr. Burnett. “My stepdad bred dogs. But he didn’t take care of them. He just made money off of them.” They had American bulldogs and pitbulls. One of them was named Diamond. “I got kind of attached to him. And Diamond lived outside on a chain, and we’d had him since he was a puppy. And when I was like 18/19, Diamond got super sick, and he could barely breathe. His belly was big. Legs were swollen.”

Her stepdad made her take Diamond to a vet. “I had to take him to this predominantly white veterinary clinic,” Dr. Burnett recalls. “I’d never seen Black doctors.” The diagnosis was disturbing: “He was in heart failure. And he was in heart failure because he had end-stage heartworm disease.” She called home crying, she remembers. “They put my dog to sleep. And I had to put his dead body in my back seat and drive him back home.”

That painful loss motivated Burnett to educate her community. “Black folks, we’re getting better,” she says. “But for the most part, people like us choose to stay oblivious about caring for pets because it’s not on the same level as human life. I want to educate people about how to take care of their pets because as a veterinarian, I am the pet’s advocate. They can’t speak; they can’t tell you what’s wrong,” Dr. Burnett adds. “So my purpose for being a veterinarian is a little different. I do it more for the human side. I help animals, but I do it more for the humans.”

The experience gave her direction. “Nobody in my family had ever gone to college,” she explains. “I didn’t know where I was going.” Though she was in the top 10% of her high school class, “I had no exposure to college.” But a woman who mentored her mother took Burnett under her wing. “She said, ‘I’m going to take you to Prairie View. My brother is the head of the biology department.’ And that’s how I met Dr. Brown, and they put me in a summer program. So I literally graduated from high school in May and I was in college in June.” After completing her summer program, she ended up going to Tuskegee for vet school and earned a DVM in 2010, graduating summa cum laude. “And now I’ve been practicing 13 years.”

Dr. Keisha Burnett and Dr. Aziza Glass perform routine check-up (Photo by J. Raphael’s
Photography)

“I want to add one more thing,” Dr. Beckham cuts in, mentioning Dr. Alfred Nelson Poindexter: “He was one of the pivotal faculty members at Prairie View at the time.” (After graduating from Kansas State in 1945, Dr. Poindexter joined the faculty at Prairie View A&M University, teaching animal science and practicing veterinary medicine. During his tenure, Dr. Poindexter taught about anatomy, animal health, sanitation, and reproductive physiology. He remained at PV for 59 years before retiring in 2004.)

“I gotta give him big ups as far as inspiring undergraduates to not only do veterinary medicine, but to just be who they are,” Beckham says. “He inspired many, many people. Black, White, Hispanic, you name it. He was well-known,” he adds. “I have to put him in this interview. He was another pivotal point in my life.”

“I always knew that [Dr. Poindexter] was a pillar in our history,” Dr. Glass says. Though she never met him, “I’ve always seen myself as a part of his legacy because of my relationship with Dr. Wendell Baker, who mentored all three of us, too.”

“When I graduated from Tuskegee, I wanted to be a surgeon,” Dr. Beckham continued. He did an internship in Small Animal Surgery and Medicine at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine in 1994. “That was a big eye-opening shock. I had all the information but didn’t know how to utilize it.” Eventually he figured out how to apply the information: “Medicine is a puzzle. You have to put the puzzle back together again and you solve and you treat the patient.”

After completing the internship, Dr. Beckham returned to the Army and joined the Veterinary Corps. Then he got accepted to a residency at North Carolina State but was soon deployed to Bosnia. He was deployed four times – until 2008. “Got deployed again and my wife said, ‘You know, Huey, I can’t do this,’” he recalls. “So I had to make a decision: Stay in, lose my marriage of 20 years, or get out.” He left and worked in private practice and went into corporate medicine. In that capacity, he met (and hired) Dr. Burnett and Dr. Glass – both navigating predominantly white spaces in vet care.

According to Arizona State University, veterinary medicine is currently one of the least racially and ethnically diverse fields: nearly 90% of veterinarians are white, while less than 2% are Latino and Hispanic. Nearly none are Black. All three doctors faced racial tension in their field.

For Dr. Beckham, it began in the service. “Being a Black male in the military, you are a threat,” he states. “You’re constantly being looked at, being judged.”

Dr. Glass shares similar sentiments: “I can literally say nothing and just look, and I’m still an ‘angry Black woman’ sometimes,” she explains. “There was pressure to smile all the time. And sometimes, I was like, ‘I don’t feel like smiling. I don’t want to smile right now.’”

After two tumultuous years in a “very toxic” work environment, Dr. Glass called Dr. Beckham and asked: was she struggling due to lack of skill, or because of who she was? “He said, ‘It’s who you are. And the only way for you to change that story and change that circumstance is for you to have your own space and have your own lane.’ And that was very freeing,” Dr. Glass recalls. She started her own mobile practice: “I was just working out of my car. I had car magnets that I would pop on when I was on duty and I would take off when I was ready to go to bed.”

Like Dr. Glass, Dr. Burnett also worked out of her car post-grad. After four rocky months at one job —she left. Dr. Burnett put a table on the back of her truck and started doing surgeries and vaccines out in the field.

Then she worked at a mixed animal practice in Willis, treating dogs, cats, horses, sheep and goats. Locals weren’t prepared: “They weren’t used to seeing somebody who looked like me,” Dr. Burnett says.

After leaving Willis, Dr. Burnett worked for “a large corporation” where Dr. Beckham was her medical director. “I hired both these guys,” he says. Together, they began looking for places to open their own clinic. They found spots on Almeda, Emancipation, and Binz. But things always fell through. Then CAWLM happened.

Dr. Keisha Burnett, Dr. Huey Paul Beckham, Jr., and Dr. Aziza Glass welcome the community to the CAWLM Veterinary Hospital (Photo by J. Raphael’s Photography)

Both Beckham and Glass had seen the space; Dr. Glass initially hesitated. “I was very adamant – and I know both of us were – about opening a practice in Third Ward,” she says. “I wanted to make sure that [in Third Ward] there would be somebody that would come in to serve and respect our people. And we had opportunities to open a practice in the suburbs. There were people who contacted me when they found out that we were having problems finding locations, offering us space in their buildings at discounted rates. And I said, ‘Thank you, but no, thank you, because we want to be in Third Ward.’”

“So even though I saw the space, I never really considered it, because I was super-focused on the clinic being in Third Ward, whereas this would be considered more Museum District.” But one day – talk about how God works, and how the Holy Spirit guides you – I happened to come across an urban planning study for Third Ward and the history of it, done by Rice University. And it talked about the original borders of Third Ward prior to gentrification, before there was a Midtown, before there was a Museum District,” she says. “And this space was located within the original boundaries of Third Ward. So then it clicked and I said, ‘You know what, God, you are answering my prayers.’”

CAWLM is a full-service veterinary clinic that provides services like grooming, dentistry, surgery, vaccinations, pain management, and radiology (digital X-rays can assist in treatment of problems from heart disease to broken bones). The clinic also offers acupuncture (which can treat pain, skin conditions, and even mental health). CAWLM also provides services beyond the Houston area, servicing areas including Pearland, Katy, Sugar Land, Kingwood, Spring, Cypress, and the Woodlands. Its goal is to promote complete animal wellness and extend the lifespan of pets through personalized and innovative care.

Follow the CAWLM Veterinary Hospital @cawlmvet to learn more.

Dr. Keisha Burnett, Dr. Huey Paul Beckham, Jr., and Dr. Aziza Glass pose inside the lobby of the CAWLM Veterinary Hospital (Photo by J. Raphael’s Photography)

The post Prairie View Alums Partner to Keep “CAWLM” with New Animal Clinic in Third Ward appeared first on Forward Times.

The post Prairie View Alums Partner to Keep “CAWLM” with New Animal Clinic in Third Ward first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Forward Times Staff

Posts by Forward Times Staff

Up Next

Derek Chauvin Is Again Trying To Overturn George Floyd Murder Conviction

Don't Miss

Inaugural Honeyland Festival Lays the Foundation for a Sweet Future

Forward Times Staff

Click to comment

#NNPA BlackPress

Black Artists in America, Installation Three Wraps at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

TRI-STATE DEFENDER — With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

Published

6 days ago

March 24, 2026

admin

By Candace A. Gray | Tri-State Defender

The tulips gleefully greet those who enter the gates at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens on an almost spring day. More than 650,000 bulbs of various hues are currently on display. And they are truly breathtaking.

Inside the gallery, and equally as breathtaking, is the “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” exhibit, which runs through Sunday, March 29. This is the third installment of a three-part series that started years ago and illustrates part of the Black experience through visual arts in the 20th century.

“This story picks up where part two left off,’’ said Kevin Sharp, the Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director for the Dixon. “This era is when we really start to see the emergence of these important Black artists’ agency and freedom shine through. They start to say and express what they want to, and it was a really beautiful time.”

With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

“Though [Davis] was from LA, he actually lived in Memphis for a decade,” said Sharp. “He was a dean at Memphis College of Art, and later opened the first gallery in New York owned and operated by black curators.”

Another featured artist is former NFL player, Ernie Barnes. His work is distinctive. Where have you seen one of his most popular paintings, Sugar Shack? On the end scene and credits of the hit show “Good Times.” His piece Saturday Night, Durham, North Carolina, 1974 is in this collection.

Memphis native James Little’s “The War Baby: The Triptych” is among more than 50 works featured in “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the final installment of a three-part series highlighting the impact and evolution of Black artists through 2011.

The exhibit features other artists with Memphis ties, including abstract painter James Little, who was raised in a segregated Memphis and attended Memphis Academy of Art (before it was Memphis College of Art). He later moved to New York, became a teacher and an internationally acclaimed fixture in the art world in 2022 when he was named a Whitney Biennial selected artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Other artists like Romare Bearden, who had a Southern experience but lived up North, were featured in all three installments.

“During this period of time, he was a major figure,” said Sharp. “He wrote one of the first books on the history of African American art during a time when there were more Black academics, art teachers, more Black everything!”

Speaking of Black educators, Sharp said the head curator behind this tri-part series and Dixon’s partner in the arts is Earnestine Jenkins, Ph.D., an art history professor at the University of Memphis, who also earned a Master of Arts degree from Memphis State University (now UofM). “We began working with Dr. Jenkins in 2018,” he said.

Sharp explained that it takes a team of curators, registrars, counterparts at other museums, and more, about three years to assemble an exhibit like this. It came together quite seamlessly, he added. Each room conjured up more jaw-dropping “wows” than the one before it. Each piece worked with the others to tell the story of Black people and their collective experience during this time period.

One of the last artists about whom Sharp shared information was Bettye Saar, who will turn 100 years old this year. She’s been working in Los Angeles for 80 years and is finally getting her due. Her medium is collages or assemblages, and an incredible work of hers is on display. She’s married to an artist and has two daughters, also artists.

The exhibit catalogue bears some of these artists’ stories, among other scholarly information.

The exhibit, presented by the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, is culturally and colorfully rich. It is a must see and admission to the Dixon is free.

Visit https://www.dixon.org/ to learn more.

Fun Facts: An original James Little design lives in the flooring of the basketball court at Tom Lee Park, and he makes and mixes his own paint colors.

admin

Posts by admin

#NNPA BlackPress

Grief, Advocacy, and Education: A Counselor Reflects on Black Maternal Health

SAN DIEGO VOICE & VIEWPOINT — Last month healthcare leaders, birth workers, and community members gathered to honor the legacy of Charleston native Dr. Janell Green Smith, a nurse-midwife and doctor of nursing practice who died in January from childbirth complications. She had participated in more than 300 births and specialized in helping Black women give birth safely.

Published

6 days ago

March 24, 2026

admin

By Jennifer Porter Gore | Word-In-Black | San Diego Voice and Viewpoint

In 2024, the number of U.S. mothers who died as a result of pregnancy or childbirth dropped compared to 2023. But while slightly fewer Black mothers died that year, they still had three times the mortality rate of white women.

South Carolina’s rates of maternal deaths outpaced even the national rates. In fact, the state’s overall rate of maternal deaths between 2019 and 2023 was higher than all but eight states and the District of Columbia.

Last month healthcare leaders, birth workers, and community members gathered to honor the legacy of Charleston native Dr. Janell Green Smith, a nurse-midwife and doctor of nursing practice who died in January from childbirth complications. She had participated in more than 300 births and specialized in helping Black women give birth safely.

Her death shocked the community and her colleagues who are determined to address concerns about Black maternal health. The event also covered the importance of protecting mental health during grief and of men’s role in solving the maternal health crisis.

As both a therapist and a father, Lawrence Lovell, a licensed professional counselor and founder of Breakthrough Solutions, discussed ways the event’s attendees could process their grief over Green Smith’s death. He also shared ways male partners can advocate for women’s maternal health during pregnancy and childbirth.

Lovell spoke not just as a therapist but also as a father whose own family had briefly crossed paths with Green Smith. The event, he said, emerged organically from a moment of collective mourning.

Despite the grief, “it was still, like, a really beautiful event, a much-needed event, and it almost felt like we were all giving each other a collective family hug,” says Lovell.

His connection to Green Smith, Lovell says, was brief but meaningful during his wife’s pregnancy with their second child. Green Smith was practicing at the same birthing center where they had their child. She began practicing in Greenville a short time later.Even that short connection carried significance for Lovell, given the small number of Black maternal health professionals.

Lovell did not initially plan to become a mental health practitioner; he chose the career path after graduating from college, when someone suggested he consider psychology. His interest deepened when he noticed how few Black men work in mental health.

“Being Black man and playing football in college, there weren’t a lot of people that look like me talking about mental health,” says Lovell. “[I wanted] to give people that look like me an opportunity to work with someone that looks like them.”

Working with Expectant and New Parents

Lovell often counsels couples preparing for parenthood by, helping partners understand what a successful pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum recovery look like. That often means helping women manage postpartum depression.

As a man, Lovell says, it’s “humbling” that a woman “just trusts me enough to work with me through their pregnancy or their postpartum recovery.”

In his work, Lovell has noticed how few men understand pregnancy before they experience it with their partner. Because early pregnancy symptoms are often invisible, he says, men may underestimate how much support a mom-to-be actually needs.

“Sometimes they may not realize they don’t know much about pregnancy and what to expect in those three trimesters,” Lovell says. “I tell a lot of the men that just because you can’t see [she’s pregnant] doesn’t mean that she won’t appreciate your intense support in that first trimester.”

Education about pregnancy and postpartum recovery, he says, can change how men support their partners.

Teaching Advocacy in the Delivery Room

Another major focus of Lovell’s counseling is preparing men to advocate for mothers during labor.

“Helping men understand what pregnancy looks like: what delivery is going to look like, and what are the realistic expectations that I should have of myself in postpartum,” he says.

Lovell encourages partners to be honest about their expectations for what will happen during delivery. He helps them prepare for the big day by discussing the birth plan and knowing how to quickly recognize problems. Clear communication, he says, prevents misunderstandings.

He regularly trains men to ask their partners detailed questions about their expectations during and after pregnancy. Advocacy in medical settings can be especially important and requires attention to details the mother may not be able to address.

“It’s always important to fine-tune things and truly understand what helps your partner feel most supported,” Lovell says. “Instead of guessing, you should ask.”

Lovell recalls a moment during the birth of his first child when he had to take that role.

During the delivery, “I felt like something wasn’t as sanitary as I’d like it to be,” he says. “I asked, ‘Hey, can you switch those out? Can you change your gloves?’”

Lovell has a succinct but powerful message he regularly shares with clients’ families, and he shared it with attendees at last month’s event.

“Just to believe women,” he says. “I’ve worked with different couples, and sometimes I’m not really sure that there’s enough empathy from the men.”

That includes how women express pain.

“If a woman says, ‘my pain is at a nine,’ just because how you would express yourself at a nine is different than how she’s expressing herself at [that level] doesn’t mean you shouldn’t believe her,” he says.

Empathy, he says, can change outcomes far beyond the delivery room.

“We’ve got to believe women when they’re talking about their experiences and their feelings and their pain,” he says. “I think there’s a lot that we can prevent if we empathize better.”

admin

Posts by admin

#NNPA BlackPress

Future of Florida’s Black History Museum in Limbo

JACKSONVILLE FREE PRESS — A proposal sponsored by Tom Leek, a Republican from Ormond Beach, has now passed the Senate in back-to-back legislative sessions. But the House version, filed by Kiyan Michael, a Jacksonville Republican, did not receive final approval in either year, effectively stalling the effort.

Published

6 days ago

March 24, 2026

admin

Jacksonville Free Press

Plans to establish a long-awaited Black history museum in Florida are once again on hold after legislation needed to advance the project failed to clear the state House for a second consecutive year, despite repeated approval in the Senate.

A proposal sponsored by Tom Leek, a Republican from Ormond Beach, has now passed the Senate in back-to-back legislative sessions. But the House version, filed by Kiyan Michael, a Jacksonville Republican, did not receive final approval in either year, effectively stalling the effort.

Under Florida law, identical or similar bills must pass both chambers before heading to the governor’s desk. Without House approval, the legislation has been unable to move forward, leaving the project in limbo. Long journey, contested location.

The proposed museum, formally known as the Florida Museum of Black History, has been years in the making, with lawmakers and community leaders framing it as a long-overdue institution to preserve and showcase the state’s African American heritage .A central point of contention has been the museum’s location. St. Augustine — widely recognized as the nation’s oldest city and a site deeply tied to both slavery and early Black history — emerged as the leading contender. Supporters argue the city’s historical significance makes it a natural home for the museum. However, competing interests and regional considerations have fueled debate, slowing consensus among lawmakers.

While the Senate-backed measure has consistently advanced, the lack of alignment in the House has underscored ongoing divisions about how and where the project should take shape.

The holdup in the Florida House appears to be less about opposition to the museum itself and more about a combination of procedural bottlenecks, unresolved structural issues, and lingering disagreements over how the project should be formalized and governed.

Despite the legislative setbacks, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has publicly voiced support for the museum. Speaking last month during the unveiling of a statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass in St. Augustine, DeSantis said the project would move forward “one way or another,” signaling an intent to see the museum built regardless of legislative hurdles.

The anticipated museum has already cleared several hurdles. St. Johns County signed an agreement last year with Florida Memorial University to use the land that once housed its campus last year’s legislative session netted $1 million in funding for St. Johns County to work on planning and design for the museum. However, its anticipated that a million $3 million is needed.

Still, without statutory approval to finalize key components — including governance, funding mechanisms and site selection — the project remains largely conceptual.
With the House bill failing again, the timeline for the museum’s development is unclear. Lawmakers could revisit the proposal in the next legislative session, but any further delays risk pushing the project back several more years. Advocates warn that continued inaction could stall momentum for a museum many see as critical to telling a fuller, more accurate story of Florida’s past. For now, the effort remains paused — caught between political support at the top and legislative gridlock within the Capitol.