About Me

My name is Kishana Taylor and I am co-founder and president of the Black Microbiologists Association. I am alumni of the Khadempor lab at Rutgers-Newark, Wayne Lab at Carnegie Mellon, and the Diaz-Munoz Lab at UC-Davis where I focused on the ecology and evolution of orthobunyaviruses endemic in the northern U.S., the role of monocytes in COVID-19 severity and understanding patterns and frequencies of influenza reassortment respectively.

I was part of the inaugural class of the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program at The University of Georgia. My degree track focused on disease ecology. I received a B.S. in animal science from the University of Delaware and an M.S. in public health microbiology and emerging infectious disease (PHMEID). I seek to combine my knowledge from all my areas of study by taking an interdisciplinary approach to investigating emerging viruses and other emerging pathogens.

My overall interests include viral evolution, especially arboviruses, as well as interactions between both the virus and the host and the virus and the vector. Additionally, I seek to infused social justice and equity into emerging infectious disease and pandemic preparedness. 

Photo credit: Sara Huny Young