Dr. Slaughter received her B.S. in Chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University, spending her sophomore through senior college years conducting research on triazine herbezides utilizing ELIZA (Enyzme Linked Immunosorbent Assays) and CE (Capillary Electropherisis). She went on to receive a M.S. from the Virginia Commonwealth University in Chemical Engineering, studying the function of surface modification techniques to increase neuron to electrode attachments. While completing her thesis work, Dr. Slaughter performed atomic force microscopy & scanning electron microscopic studies at VCU Medical Center (Formally MCV) and became interested in the design and the implantation of medical device. She was accepted into the Ph.D. program at Virginia Commonwealth University in Electrical Engineering to continue her studies. She received her Ph.D. from Virginia Commonwealth University and her Ph.D. thesis work centered on the Recognition of Neurotoxins Utilizing Artificial Neural Networks (ANN).
Dr. Slaughter then joined the Department of Chemistry & Physics at Virginia State University as an instructor. She taught General Chemistry I & II, and Introduction to Chemical Research and conducted research in the area of triazine herbecides detection in well waters.
Dr. Slaughter has continued to work and publish in the area of biosensors and bioelectronics. Since being promoted to Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering in the Department of Engineering & Technology at Virginia State University, Dr. Slaughter has continued to work in the areas of biosensors, cell biology, growth factors, and plant and soil science, and has established an independent laboratory. Her current laboratory includes staff, undergraduate, graduate students conducting research in these areas. She received a Research Initiation Grant (RIG) from Virginia State University for her work with glucose biosensors.
Dr. Slaughter serves as an Executive Director of the Richmond Area Program for Minorities in Engineering. Her work has been published in nationally recognized and international journals. She is also a faculty advisor to Trojan Student Practice Company (TSP Co.), Society of Women Engineers (SWE) which she initiated at VSU, and National Society of Black Engineers. She is currently the Chair of the Recruitment & Retention Committee (R&R) and the Trojan Student Practice Company Committee (TSP Co). Both committees convene monthly. She is also an active member of the University's Curriculum Academic Issues Committee (CAIC) which convenes weekly. The CAIC is responsible for the following areas: academic programs, teaching and pedagogy, and the University catalog.
In Dr. Slaughter's spare time, She enjoy gardening, running, and playing tennis. She also spends a lot of time with people in their twenties trying to "find themselves." Go figure! Her students keep her "on her toes" by teaching her about teaching itself - what works and does not work.
"I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing the "lights come on" in a student's eyes. I enjoyed watching student progress from "sponges", who passively soak up information to be intellectually engaged and active participants in the learning process. I love the feeling of transferring knowledge to people." - Dr. Slaughter