Early life and education[edit]

Tsosie's family had been forcibly displaced economically and geographically from their home communities, so she grew up "non-res" in West Phoenix as the only native kid in her school. Her mother comes from Shonto, Arizona and her father comes from the Loop area in Central Arizona. Tsosie's father worked in the Phoenix Indian Medical Center, the largest Indian health service clinic in the US.^[4]


Tsosie attended Arizona State University (ASU) where she received a Bachelor's degree in Microbiology, a Master's in Bioethics, and a Master's in Public Health Epidemiology. She began her work in cancer biology, and she developed and patented a combined targeted ultrasound imaging and chemotherapeutic drug delivery device for treating early metastases in cancer.^[3] However, realizing that her tribal community had difficulty accessing specialty services, she decided to change her focus to genomics and health disparities to better impact her community.^[5][6][4][7] While studying bioethics, Tsosie experienced the aftereffects of the Havasupai Tribe v. the Arizona Board of Regents lawsuit.^[6]


Tsosie completed her PhD in Genomics and Health Disparities at Vanderbilt University in 2022^[8] and then worked as a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at ASU before joining their faculty.^[7]