What got you interested in this research field? Psychiatry and neuroscience have always impassioned me. As I have engaged more with psychiatric research, the prominent racial disparity within the field has stood out to me. This disparity is inequitable for black health and largely caused by poor consideration of race and neglect to include racially diverse data. With my current research, I am able to merge my passions – neuroscience, genetics, and equitable health outcomes – with a lot of bioinformatics as the cherry on top!
Who are the mentors or role models who have impacted you? One of my role models who has helped shape me is American liberation activist Marsha P. Johnson. Ms. Johnson’s activism for the rights of marginalized people to freely be themselves reminds me of true strength. Another one of my role models is my MSc supervisor, Dr.Shreejoy Tripathy. He has played an important role in my scientific development, and his teaching has been key to my growth as a computational neuroscientist.
What’s an empowering lesson that you’ve learned? The most empowering lesson that I have learned is to believe in yourself. I experienced an undergraduate degree with harsh economic stress. At one point, I had to work three jobs to support myself while in school. Despite this, my tenacity to pursue higher education and belief in myself drove me to complete my Hons. BSc in Biology, concurrent with two certificates of bilingualism. I urge other Black researchers to believe in themselves and their abilities.
Do you have any advice or resources for Black youth interested in pursuing science? Absolutely! There are many great opportunities to be made from interacting with people, so I encourage Black youth to focus on making connections. I also recommend learning to analyze data. For those interested in pursuing data science, I recommend the following websites:
What are you most looking forward to in the next five years? In the next five years, I am most looking forward to completing my MSc and advancing my research. I intend to study further the molecular basis of racial disparity in the brain. There is so much more to learn. I am also looking forward to seeing more Black-health-oriented research.
