Taoka received her BA from Grinnell College, and her MA and PhD from the Ohio State University. Her research interests include epistolography, Roman philosophy, and classical reception in the contemporary world. She has published on Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Fronto, and the reception of the Odyssey. She is the author of Lectiones Memorabiles: Volume II: Selections from Horace, Lucretius, Seneca, Suetonius, and Tacitus (Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2015).