Dr Hephzi Tagoe is a research scientist with a PhD in Skin biology, a multiple award winning Science Communicator, Business Owner, Charity Director and freelance science writer. She is the regional chair for the Royal Society of Biology Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire branch and a 2019 Winston Churchill fellow.
Hephzi started her career in the Biosciences after completing a Biomedical Science degree before branching out into the Pharmaceutical industry after completing a postgraduate degree in Pharmaceutical science with Management studies. Her experience over the years across industry, academia, schools and start-ups has placed Hephzi in a unique position to train, inform and advise through her consultancy.
Hephzi’s work through her charity, GhScientific focusses on empowering young people and their parents from underserved communities and hard to reach audiences to improve their science capital and social mobility by providing opportunities to enable them to make informed decisions.
Hephzi regularly speaks and writes on community engagement, starting an enterprise, the inequalities in the stem industry, not just as a black woman in science, or the challenges she faced as a mum during her PhD but also the role of location and the big city bubble in creating barriers. She was named in the 2018 financial times top bame woman in UK tech for her work in the industry.
In 2014 Hephzi, organised her first science fair in Essex which has grown into an annual outdoor community science festival in Basildon. Hephzi also supports local schools as a STEM ambassador for the Essex region and runs regular STEM inspired activities in the community and public spaces. She received the 2018 community engagement award from Queen Mary.
As an educationist, Hephzi runs an independent learning centre in Basildon offering after school supported learning and summer school programs from key stage 2 through to A-Levels.
