Kayla Titialii-Torres
She/Her/Hers
PhD Candidate
University of Kentucky
Pacific Northwest LSAMP
NALA Profile
Personal Interest
I am passionate about science communication, outreach, and policy. Throughout my high school, undergraduate, and now graduate experience, I have consistently done outreach in the community and enjoy sharing science in a hands on/creative way. While conducting research, I found these experiences were incredibly beneficial to my ability to communicate my work to all audiences. Now, I have taken all of these experiences/skills and applied them to communicating science and the needs of scientists as well as science educators to government in an advocacy role. All this to say, I hope to bring the perspective of someone who is actively exploring careers outside of academia/a lab and can recognize the various skills that qualify scientists to do so. I look forward to hopefully working with undergraduates in their career exploration as well as planning programming with the Alumni group to aid in navigating this as well.
Mentoring Interest
Alumni Recruitment, Attend Conferences, Mentor Students
Areas of Expertise
Grad School Process, Interviewing, Networking, Leadership Skills, Research Posters, Research Presentation
Past Research
My undergraduate research was focused on nutritional regulation of limb regeneration using frogs (Xenopus laevis). Currently, my work is centered on how diabetes during pregnancy affects eye development of the fetus.
Past Clubs/Organizations
Current: Director, Nerd Squad Inc. / Graduate Affairs Committee, Department of Biology / Research Affairs Core Committee, The Endocrine Society / Board Member+Co-Founder, University of Kentucky Chapter of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science