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Today Latasha Wright, co-founder and executive scientific officer of BioBus takes us through her career journey, which had some very unexpected twists and turns along the way. Her childhood began in Mississippi as the youngest of 5 children. Both her parents nurtured the importance of education through constant exposure to books and just asking, “What did you learn today?”. Once Latasha started high school, however, she truly discovered her love of science with an incredible science teacher who encouraged mixing things together and blowing things up! She continued her education at Tougaloo College, a historically black college and university (HBCU), determined to get her degree in chemistry. As a college student, Latasha also received the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC U-STAR) scholarship. She also confidently declared her interest in going to graduate school for a PhD–but she didn’t know what a PhD actually was! This experience opened the doors to completing a program at the NIH, giving her first-hand experience in lab research. And, Latasha absolutely loved every minute of it. Excited for her future as a scientist, it was now time for Latasha to apply to programs; she was grappling between NYU, Berkeley, and Emory. However, a chance encounter with the associate dean of NYU changed her trajectory completely, and she ended up attending NYU. After receiving her doctorate in cellular and molecular biology, she completed two post-doctoral fellowships at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Weill Cornell Medical College. By chance, during her time back in NYC she met Ben Dubin-Thaler, and that connection led to the creation of BioBus. Currently, Latasha is really excited about bringing BioBus to the Bronx with a Community Lab. And she keeps reminding herself to “Be ready for the journey, it's gonna be good!”.

Tune into this episode to hear about Latasha’s journey and:

• How Latasha learned about the option of completing a Ph.D.
• Why she decided to go to NYU over Berkley and Emory
• What convinced her to transition from academia to science-outreach with BioBus

Reach out to Latasha: 

Email: latasha@biobus.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/latasha-wright-95bb7a16/ 

Book a BioBus visit: https://www.biobus.org/programs 

If you enjoyed this episode, check out one more:

• Ep 67: BioBus of the Future - The Work 
• Ep 42: Science CEO Level Unlocked - The Work
• Ep 6: STEMLand Future of Science - The Work

Check out Latasha's show on March 18th: Story Collider presents Stories of Brain and Beyond: https://www.storycollider.org/tickets/2025/mount-sinai-brain-beyond

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Music from Pixabay: Future Artificial Intelligence Technology 130 by TimMoor
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