Toya Scaggs joined the Department of Chemistry in 2014 after working in the pharmaceutical industry for six years to pursue a PhD in organic chemistry under the tutelage of Professor Tom Snaddon. During her time at IU, Toya focused on developing novel synthetic and catalytic approaches to epidithiodiketopiperazine natural products and received numerous awards including Theordore C. Mays Fellowship, Marvin Carmack Fellowship, Carl Storm Underrepresented Minority Fellowship, and IU President’s Diversity Dissertation Fellowship. After graduating, Toya accepted a position as a Staff Scientist in the Molecular Design and Synthesis Center at Vanderbilt University where she collaborated on several medicinal chemistry and chemical biology projects. In 2022, Toya accepted a medicinal chemistry position in the Advanced Molecule Design division at Loxo@Lilly (the oncology unit of Eli Lilly) where she focuses on developing new drug therapies for cancer patients.