Rita Shiang, Ph.D. | Genetics Researcher

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I’m a feminist because…

“My Asian immigrant parents believed the phrase ‘all men are created equal’ applied to women, too. They raised their daughters knowing that we could be anything from an astronaut to the Secretary of State. The word ‘feminism’ is really about equality. Everybody should be a feminist.”

Her family left Taiwan for Los Angeles when Rita was just three. A geneticist and professor at VCU Medical School department of Human and Molecular Genetics, she’s working to decode the DNA of two rare diseases. Outside the lab, Rita and her husband Andy, “love swing dancing; we do a mean Lindy Hop.”