Angi Taylor’s enthusiasm is contagious. Within minutes of meeting her it is clear she is a person with a purpose and driven by a mission. Angi is a convener, a connector and a cheerleader. She shies away from credit, yet she is at the center of amazing things happening in the region.
As Manager, Talent and Workforce Engagement, Angi oversees BioSTL's Externship program which aims to close the opportunity, skills and cultural gap by exposing underrepresented talent to the biosciences and to employers in the St. Louis region. The program exposes, trains, and connects diverse talent to paid work-learn opportunities and permanent employment.
At the same time, it helps employers staff up with qualified talent. Currently there is an urgent need for trained employees in bioscience companies. Filling that need is critical to ensuring that St. Louis can continue to build on its reputation as an international hub for innovation in the biosciences.
In 2023, Angi remodeled the program to cast a wider net to include 70 participants from as far as East St. Louis, Collinsville and St. Charles. The cohort comprised 75% women and 75 % non-white participants. A third of the students had little or no understanding of careers in the biosciences. They visited employers like the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Cover Cress, Cortex Innovation District, McDonnell Genome Institute, and Thermo Fisher Scientific which uncovered a wide range of opportunities in a variety of fields.
Fifty of these students registered for the "boot camp" skills training, and half earned at least one BCSI micro-credential demonstrating mastery of essential skills. The next step would be a big leap, turning newly acquired skills into job opportunities.
A chance meeting with Demetrius Bledsoe, the CEO of Fresh Harvest 365 helped build a bridge to job opportunities at Bayer. Fresh Harvest is dedicated to pioneering innovative solutions facing the agricultural industry. Angi and Demetrius immediately saw an opportunity to collaborate. In future editions of Innovation for Good you will meet Jaela Chapman and Audrey Oldani who were part of the program and now hold full time positions at Bayer. Their journeys are a testament to value of BioSTL’s Externship program and its potential to change lives. We will also take a closer look at the newly formed collaboration with BioSTL, Fresh Harvest 365 and Bayer to create a triple win for St. Louis.
The design and success of this year’s Externship program are largely due to Angi’s passion for her work, rooted in her own lived experiences. Angi grew up in Walnut Park, a distressed area of North City. “According to research, in 1978, I had no chance at being successful at anything by virtue of the environment surrounding me. People told her there was no place in the sciences for a Black woman. They truly believed that the only options to get out of the hood were sports or entertainment.’”
Angi studied communication. She was good at it, but she didn’t really like broadcasting. Fast forward to 2014 Angi was working at St. Louis Community college as an education outreach specialist. She would see students earning life science lab certifications, then going on to land great jobs with great benefits and salaries significantly more than she was making with her master’s degree. The light bulb went off. “Wait a minute, I can do this.” In 2015, at age 46, Angi went back to school and earned her life science lab assistant certificate. She joined BioSTL in 2022.
Science had never been an option for Angi. She is changing that for women, for minorities and those in underrepresented communities. She is opening eyes, encouraging and coaching others to pursue careers that historically had not been opened to them. Her passion shows and it is clearly contagious.
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