Hiii 👋🏾 I’m Taylor, a PhD student studying plant-microbe interactions. I’m a plant lover—yet I like to infect plants w/ bad bacteria🦠🤔 The interplay between plants and their pathogens is super interesting! #BlackBotanistsWeek 
I owe my #BlackBotanicalLegacy to my granddad! He kept vegetable & fruit gardens. He was always tickled that I didn't mind helping him plant rows of corn or pull string beans (I just liked getting my hands dirty😂) My dad still maintains the gardens!
I got to college and my Intro to Biology teacher did a small section on plant biology. I was like... Oh plants are cool-cool 👀I didn't know plant-bio was so dope OR that plant science jobs EXISTED until I GOOGLED IT my freshman year 😭
I googled something like "summer plant research for freshmen" and ended up doing an REU at the Chicago Botanic Garden that year! (also never heard of an REU until then either) I did field research w/ @TeamEchinacea! Echinacea will always have a spot in my heart!
Later I was at the Plant Gene Expression Center for a summer working w/ tomato and pathogen PstDC3000. THIS was my intro to plant-microbe interactions & plant pathology. I was like oh plants can defend themselves from pathogens too???? Bet. Now I'm in grad school 😂
