Her name is Ashlea Morgan. She was born in Toronto, Canada, to Jamaican parents who raised her in the United States. She's a writer and scientist starting her 6th-year in a Neurobiology & Behavior Ph.D. program at Columbia University.
As a kid, she started wondering what makes us feel and behave the way we do. Through science classes and outreach programs, she learned that the brain is responsible for a lot of it, and luckily, the brain can be studied! Fast forward to now, and she's started asking questions through her doctoral research on how neural signaling drives our ability to, in a sense, change our minds.
Here's the breakdown: Nerve cells (neurons) use chemical signals called neurotransmitters (e.g., serotonin) to communicate throughout the gut and brain. Serotonin is well-known for its role in depression, but she is studying how it’s used in a part of the brain called the medial prefrontal cortex. This area is vital for higher-order executive functions like anticipating, decision making, regulating emotion, and thinking flexibly.
Ashlea studies how serotonin signaling in this region is driving emotional regulation and cognitive flexibility, thus altering behavior. (She's writing a blog post on this. Stay tuned!)
Her experience “in” the neuroscience field is, in a way, new. Internal doubts and external exclusions led her to be conflicted about claiming her title as a neuroscientist. Consequently, it wasn’t until recently that she accepted her role.
Throughout her research journey, she's been surrounded by those that are more knowledgeable and “academic”-- those who speak and appear more professorial. Nobel Laureates (plural!) walk the halls in the neuroscience department--they’re “in” the field. She just didn’t feel like she knew or did enough to claim that she was too. But when she thinks back on it, she was incorrect. She plugged away at neuroscience research questions during undergrad, an NIH postbaccalaureate fellowship, and still is through a doctoral program.
Ashlea is definitely “in” Neuro. (She addressed this more thoroughly in a Medium article entitled, “(Re)claiming my scientific identity during dual pandemics.”) Throughout her STEM journey, she's been fortunate to have friends, colleagues, and mentors who included and encouraged her. Most recently, she's felt a cocoon of support in meeting other members of the #BlackInNeuro community. She'd say, though, that the greatest indoctrination into the field has been through taking ownership of her research. As she develops “elevator pitches” to explain what she does to people in and outside of neuro, she feels much more like she's “in” the neuroscience field.
If you enjoyed Ashlea's story and want to connect with her, she can be found here:
(She is still working on building a website, but she has a Link Tree)
There you’ll find events she's done (like a FB Live Science+Jazz event on harmony & the brain) and her latest writing (like the article she spoke of above & another on using social media during dual pandemics. You’re referenced in both articles, Jaz!).
Feel free to say hi to her on Twitter: