Dr. Briana Simms is an alumna of Xavier university of Louisiana, earning her Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry with the class of 2016. Here, she was a Partnership for Research in Education in Materials Science (PREM) and NASA Research Scholar studying biomaterials for wound healing applications. In 2016, Dr. Simms matriculated into the doctoral program in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Mississippi, where she designed and synthesized self-assembling linear-dendritic block copolymers as nanocarriers for drug delivery. She earned her Ph.D. in 2021 and earned several distinctions including 2021 Southeastern Conference Emerging Scholar. In June of 2021, Dr. Simms went on to complete a 2-year post-doctoral appointment in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University as a National Institute of Neurological Disorders (NINDS) fellow with the National Institute of Health. She was awarded the Center for Biomolecular Tissue & Engineering Award Post-doctoral Achievement Award and the Maclin Community Grant which provided her with $1,000 for STEM outreach. Currently, Dr. Simms is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati. Her research program is centered on addressing health equity concerns from the benchtop. Her current research areas include the development of fully degradable polymeric nanocarriers for timed-release drug delivery and the development of injectable hydrogels for burn wound healing applications.