Dr. Courtni Newsome serves as an immunotoxicologist at Johnson & Johnson in La Jolla, California, where she investigates how pharmaceutical drugs can affect the immune system. A dedicated scientist, team leader, and advocate for educational representation, Newsome is passionate about biomedical research, mentoring the next generation of STEM professionals, and highlighting the impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) on career development. 

Newsome's path to pharmaceutical research began at Tougaloo, where she majored in chemistry and initially planned to pursue medicine through the Brown-Tougaloo Early Identification Program in Medicine. As she progressed through her undergraduate studies, she realized medicine was not the right path for her, but she remained committed to science and improving human health. Through Tougaloo's undergraduate training center for the Jackson Heart Study, she was connected with The Leadership Alliance and spent the summer before her senior year conducting biomedical research at The Miriam Hospital in Providence. That experience helped shape her transition from chemistry into biomedical science and ultimately led her to Brown's graduate program, where she earned her Ph.D. in Pathobiology in 2010.

How did your experience with the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership influence your career path?

"I was originally a chemistry major at Tougaloo, and I initially thought I wanted to do the medical school exchange. But as I went through my matriculation at Tougaloo, I figured out that medicine really wasn't for me. I still enjoyed science and wanted to find opportunities that would be applicable in STEM and have a real impact on human health."

That search led Newsome to The Leadership Alliance and a summer research experience at The Miriam Hospital. The work was clinically relevant and gave her an opportunity to develop the scientific skills and confidence she would later draw on as a graduate student and professional scientist.

"I think professionally, I 100% would not be in the biomedical field if it weren't through that partnership," she said.

The impact of the partnership was also personal. At Brown, Newsome was part of a large cohort of Tougaloo students and alumni pursuing different paths in health and science. Those relationships have continued long after graduation.

"Some of us are in biomedical research, as myself, and then some are actual physicians treating patients, some are pharmacists," she said. "We can all kind of utilize our collective skills that we have learned to help impact human health."

That network also gave Newsome and her peers a sense of confidence as they navigated demanding academic programs. The mentors and program leaders they encountered along the way became lasting influences–not only on their academic careers, but on how they approach their professional lives.

"Even the individuals who managed us back then influenced some of the managerial styles that I have now," Newsome said. Today, she helps lead a team at Johnson & Johnson.

What are you currently involved in that you would like the BTP community to know about?

At Johnson & Johnson, Newsome works in immunotoxicology, studying how pharmaceutical drugs can affect the immune system. Her work spans different disease areas, including oncology and immunoscience fields such as eczema and atopic dermatitis.

She explains her field using a familiar analogy: the immune system needs to be kept in balance, much like Goldilocks.

"You don't want your immune system to be so overactive that it starts to impact itself, where you start to have an autoimmune disease," she explained. "But you also don't want the drugs that we get to cause your immune system to be so decreased in function that you start to get things like more infections or more tumors."

An important part of Newsome's work is helping ensure that research considers the populations who may ultimately use the medicines being developed. Her team considers differences across populations, ages, and genders as non-clinical research moves toward clinical studies.

"We really try to make sure that all the non-clinical studies that we do that translate into the clinical studies really take the populations that we look at into account," she said.

Her commitment to expanding opportunity extends beyond her scientific work. Before joining Johnson & Johnson, Newsome spent nearly a decade at Bristol Myers Squibb, where she participated in an HBCU initiative designed to connect corporate professionals with students at historically Black colleges and universities.

Today, she continues that work through Johnson & Johnson's employee resource groups, including the African Ancestry Leadership Council. Through these efforts, she hopes to bring greater visibility to HBCUs, encourage mentorship, and help students see the many pathways available to them.

"I think part of what I also enjoy doing is just spotlighting the impact of HBCUs on career development and how partnerships like this are important," Newsome said.

What advice or opportunities do you have to share with the Brown-Tougaloo community?

For students interested in pharmaceutical research or other competitive industries, Newsome emphasizes the importance of relationships.

Corporate hiring and internship processes can involve significant rules and barriers, making it difficult for alumni to simply create opportunities independently. But a strong professional network can help students navigate those systems.

"There could be hundreds of thousands of people applying for some of these positions," Newsome said. "But just utilizing the network to say, ‘Hey, I can vouch for this person’ – that can really help."

Newsome may encounter internship or job opportunities at Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb, or elsewhere in the pharmaceutical industry. Her advice to students is to establish those connections before an opportunity arises.

"Staying in touch with individuals who are a part of the connection can really help bridge that entryway if you do want to go into the pharmaceutical industry, for example."

Newsome practices what she preaches. More than 15 years after leaving Brown, she remains connected with former classmates, mentors, and colleagues through LinkedIn and social media. Those platforms allow her to follow the accomplishments and career moves of members of her network and stay connected even when distance makes regular interaction difficult.

For Newsome, those connections are not simply social–they are a professional resource and an important part of the legacy of the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership.

Is there anything else you'd like readers to know?

When reflecting on her journey, Newsome returned to a sense of gratitude for the opportunities the partnership created.

"I think a lot of us wouldn't have had some of the opportunities that we have if we had not been introduced to the partnership," she said.

For Newsome, one of the most meaningful aspects of her experience was that she did not have to navigate graduate school admissions alone. Her summer research experience through The Leadership Alliance gave her mentors who could speak to her abilities and advocate for her as she applied to graduate school.

"I wasn't just applying cold," she said. "I had someone who could attest to the work that I had done that summer."

That support became part of a network that Newsome has carried with her throughout her career. She continues to keep in touch with former mentors and colleagues from her time at Brown, including individuals she first encountered through The Leadership Alliance.

More than a decade into her career in pharmaceutical research, Newsome is now helping create the kinds of connections that once helped her find her own path.

For her, that is one of the most powerful legacies of the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership: the opportunity to discover a path, the network to help navigate it, and the responsibility to help open that path for those who come next.