I am originally from Chicago, IL but did my undergraduate work in San Diego, CA. As an undergraduate, I worked in the laboratory of Dr. Terry Bird studying how the bacterium, Rhodospirillum centenum, responds to adverse environmental conditions. Following graduation, I spent a gap year working in an infectious diseases laboratory where I was a part of a team that would help perform molecular and microbiological tests to identify pathogens in clinical samples. Currently, I am a member of the Kerr Lab where I study evolutionary questions in a variety of microbial systems.