Dr. Lakeshia Taite is a Research Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering (ChE) at the University of Virginia. She has previously held faculty and research positions in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Grove School of Engineering at the City College of New York, and the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University, where she held appointments in the Departments of Veterinary Physiology & Pharmacology and Veterinary Pathobiology. Professor Taite received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama, completed her Ph.D. in Bioengineering at Rice University, and performed postdoctoral research in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on the development of polymeric biomaterials that serve as cell-instructive matrices for guided tissue growth and drug delivery.

Dr. Taite is also heavily involved in promoting and recruiting students for undergraduate research. She is the director of the Dean's Undergraduate Engineering Fellowship in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and also recruits students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to UVA ChE for research in biomaterials each summer. She also runs the Bridge to Bio program with Prof. George Prpich, which recruits Virginia Community College students to ChE and careers in biotechnology. Dr. Taite also serves as the ChE faculty champion for the Clark Scholars program and is helping students in ChE and Chemistry launch a UVA NOBCChE chapter.