Taiye Winful

Doctoral Candidate
She/her/hers

Taiye entered the Ph.D. program at Vanderbilt in the Fall of 2018. Previously, she completed a bachelor's degree in molecular biology from Loyola University Chicago and an MA degree in anthropology from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Taiye’s MA thesis was entitled “Reconstructing Africa’s Evolutionary Histories: DNA Collection, Coding, Analysis, and Interpretation.” In her thesis, she focused on generating a comprehensive bio-culturally informed set of African DNA databases that reflected continental and diasporic African genomic diversity. 

Taiye’s main interests include genetics, race, health, embodiment, and health disparities. Her research centers on understanding how life experiences translate into physiological systems via stress in Black populations. She explores the biological mechanisms that connect stress and health, with a specific focus on how social and environmental factors can lead to epigenetic changes in inflammatory related biomarkers.

In developing progressive methods of analysis, she hopes her research can bring insight into ways to not only study African and African American disparities but other unrepresented groups as well.

Awards:

SEC Emerging Scholars fellowship, Fall 2022; National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (NSF-DDRIG), Spring 2023