Dr. Audrey L. Tanksley was born and raised on the south side of Chicago in the Fernwood community. She attended Chicago Public Schools and upon graduation, continued her education at Southern Illinois University Carbondale receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Biological-Sciences. Following this she attended Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, IL and completed a Doctorate in Medicine. Dr. Tanksley returned to the Chicagoland area to complete her Internal Medicine residency training at UIC/ Advocate Christ Medical Center where she served as chief resident.

She is dual board certified in Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine. She served as Medical Director of Heartland Alliance Health providing homeless healthcare and participating in the violence prevention program READI Chicago. In 2019, Dr. Tanksley became the Regional Medical Director of Near/Far South Region of Access Community Health Network overseeing six health centers, which during Covid included one mass vaccination site and one mass testing site. She is the current CMO of Integrated Health at Friend Health/HRDI.

She is the current President of Cook County Physicians Association, a local society of the National Medical Association. Dr. Tanksley serves on the Board of the I Am Abel Foundation. She serves as a mentor for the I Am Abel Foundation for students interested in careers in medicine and educates the masses on the interface of poverty, violence, and disease. Physical Exam and Diagnosis is a course that serves as an introduction to clinical medicine. In this course students will gain the knowledge and skills essential for performing a medical history and physical examination. The course builds upon the first-year curriculum of History taking to add the skills of critical thinking and the fundamentals of head-to-toe examination to develop a differential diagnosis with beginners’ intro to pathophysiology.