Hacking Racism and Mental Health in the Black Community with Yusuf Henriques, Co-Founder and Former CEO of TruGenomix

Confessions of a Native Son

What's going on everyone, Welcome to another edition of Confessions of a Native Son, I'm your host "IRON" Mike Steadman. I'm a Marine Corps Veteran, Entrepreneur, and Aspiring author, who enjoys thought-provoking and engaging dialogue about race, culture, and business. It feels good to be back on the pod after a bit of break. I've taken the last few months to do some reading, get ahead on my interviews, and get refocused. I'm excited about this podcast and the opportunity to continue creating engaging content for all of you. We're now officially in Season 2 of Confessions of a Native Son. To help me kick this Season off, I invited on the show a good friend of mine and fellow entrepreneur, Yusuf Henriques, Co-Founder of TruGenomix, a precision genomics company developing solutions for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Veterans. As a former Combat Medic, Yusuf's personally witnessed the wreckage of the “invisible wounds of war” and their effects on military service members and those around them. At TruGenomix, Yusuf and his team are studying the effects of Trauma, and how it can alter humans DNA. His research has profound implications not only for veterans but also for the black community and the hundreds of years of generational trauma passed down through the Human Genome. Like me, Yusuf has a deep love for black people. Although originally from Jamaica, After leaving the military, Yusuf attended Howard University, where he studied biochemistry. He went on to earn a Masters in Public Health from John Hopkins University. Although veterans are the primary focus of his research, he's also studying the effects of structural racism within the U.S. Healthcare system. Driven by his passion to eradicate health disparities globally, he recently launched IndyGeneUs AI, a new Genomics-Integrated Health Data Platform company based in Nairobi, Kenya. He plans to sequence 1M African genomes on the continent to develop better drug treatments for black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC). He's well versed in science and history, and we have a great discussion about the challenges black American's face from a public health perspective, the effects of PTSD within the black community, and how our elders have been right all along. As always, thanks for sharing your time with me and I hope you enjoy today's show.