Takiyah Starks has conducted clinical research and community engagement around the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease for over 20 years. She is an experienced clinical program manager, dedicated research professional, phlebotomist, and educator and has conducted extensive clinical research, molecular biology and laboratory management, and organizational and communication skills. She has an extensive expertise in successfully recruiting Underrepresented Minorities for clinical studies and managed several National Institutes of Health-funded Alzheimer’s disease genetic studies and was a part of recruiting participants for the largest African American Genome-Wide Association study. Starks has experience in classroom teaching, and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, and have worked to develop evidence-informed best practices that address Social Determinants of Health.
She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology Pre-Med from Bennett College for Women in 1998, and her Masters of Science Degree in Biology from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (A&T). While at A&T she conducted research at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Cancer Biology in the 2003-2004 academic year. Ms. Starks is currently Program Manager for Wake Forest School of Medicine’s DAWN Alzheimer’s Research Project and the Community Engagement Director. Her specific focus is research in the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease particularly in African Americans and underrepresented populations.
Ms. Starks goal is to increase awareness in Alzheimer’s disease and to bridge the gap of health inequities in the most vulnerable populations.
A native of Chicago, Illinois, she has a personal connection to Alzheimer’s disease. Her paternal grandmother lived with the disease until (insert grandmothers age) and was diagnosed in her late fifties, making this research especially meaningful to Starks. “Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, which makes finding answers in order to better understand the disease very critical, stated Starks.”
Publications
- Empowering a Clinical Research Team to Recruit and Retain Hispanic and African American Participants for the DAWN Alzheimer’s Research Study
- Alzheimer’s & Dementia
- Takiyah D. Starks, Shawnta Lloyd. Kristy A. Terrell, Goldie S Byrd
Background The DAWN study will build a large genomics resource for AD research in individuals with African (Af) and Hispanic/Latino (H/L) ancestry. Clinical Research Coordinators (CRCs) are recruiting 5,000 Af, 4,000 African Americans (AA) and 4,000 H/L participants from the US and ten African sites.