In situ with Emmeline Edwards

Emmeline Edwards directs the division of extramural research of the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Prior to joining the US federal government, she spent years in academia developing and characterising a genetic model of depression known as congenital learned helplessness.

I grew up in Haiti and came to the US when I was 17 years old, in 1970. My grandfather was a Haitian historian who directed the National Museum in Haiti. At the time women didn’t really work outside of the home, but my mom was one of the administrators at the museum for many years. My dad was an accountant and a business owner.

For political reasons, my father had to flee the country and lost his properties. He was an accountant for the national casino in Haiti, and there was a political conflict that resulted in the disappearance of his best friend and business partner. So, my father had very little choice but to leave Haiti very quickly.

We did not all leave Haiti for the US together. My mom, sister and I came about three or four years later. We stayed in Haiti because my mother wanted my sister and I to complete our education in the French system – we did the international baccalaureate programme – before we came to the US.

My interest in chemistry really started in Haiti when I had an opportunity to work in the laboratory of an all-male high school on Saturdays. A good friend of mine and I were the only two girls who participated in those lab experiments. I’ve always been curious and interested in how things work and was a little bit of a chemistry nerd.

When I came to the US, I really didn’t speak any English, so I literally studied with a dictionary, and I watched a lot of TV to learn the language. It was a difficult first year, but I overcame some of those hurdles.

I majored in chemistry and minored in biology at the College of New Rochelle in New York. As an undergraduate, I focused on biochemistry, but my primary advisor in graduate school was a neuroscientist. That was really my first exposure to how things work in the brain, and some mechanisms that might be involved with hypertension, depression and other health conditions.

We’ve made lots of strides in understanding how the brain works, but it is going to be a big challenge to understand how the brain is connected to the cardiovascular system, for example, in the context of stress management. Comprehending how systems in your body are interconnected and how that impacts health is a major challenge to solve. It’s not going to be easy, and we’ll have to rely on computational models and physiological models to get the answer. We have the pieces, but we just need to put them together.

Foremost, I am a scientist but don’t do hands-on experiments anymore. My role now is to oversee all the research programmes that are in NCCIH’s extramural research division. I connect the dots and identify promising areas, work with my staff to develop new programmes that would advance the field, and work across the various NIH institutes to gain allies to be able to leverage our resources.

 I drew a lot of my passion and direction from the women in my family.

As a woman of colour there have been challenges in the scientific world. It’s learning how to find my community and work with the right mentors and allies that has given me the opportunity to get to where I am. So right now, I am giving back by chairing World Women in Neuroscience – a mentoring and networking organisation focused on promoting the careers of women neuroscientists across the globe through various activities like webinars and networking events.

I love to listen to all kinds of music – jazz, dancing music, salsa, but I don’t play an instrument per se. I love to dance, and sometimes I dance by myself.

Meditation is important to me, and I’m better at it sometimes than at other times, but I do try. I like to walk and exercise as well. I also love to read, usually trying to unwind by reading something that’s not science, like historical fiction.

People from my family have been some of my greatest heroes. My mother was a woman who challenged tradition and worked outside of the home. I drew a lot of my passion and direction from the women in my family. My grandmother on my father’s side wrote for the Haitian newspaper under a genderless pseudonym and was a very influential woman.

It’s difficult for me to watch what is happening in Haiti, seeing the destruction and the senselessness of what’s going on. I don’t even think I would recognise the capital if I went to visit right now because so much is destroyed.

The beach is my happy place. The one thing I miss most about the Caribbean is the beautiful, clear and warm waters. I still go to the beach in the US, but it is obviously not the same – the water is very cold.