Growing up in New Port Richey, Florida, I discovered I liked to understand how things worked at a young age. (I was always much better at taking things apart to see how they worked than I was at having the discipline to put them back together!). During my time as a student at the University of Florida, I performed a long-standing college tradition: I had a (mild) existential crisis. I loved the clean logic and predictability of Physics, but I liked the chaotic beauty and complexity of Biology just as much! How to decide what to study?! It took me the better part of twenty years, two separate Bachelor’s degrees, a PhD at the NIH and Georgetown University, and a ten year postdoc at HHMI Janelia, but I’m happy to say I firmly refused to give up on either of them.
Being a scientist is an incredible privilege—I feel very fortunate to have the investment of my colleagues, my funders, and my trainees that allows us to perform amazing, interdisciplinary work here each day. I take my role as a teacher and mentor very seriously—it is such an opportunity to get to share the amazing way the world works with young, bright people each day.
Outside of the lab, I love reading fiction, making cocktails (or mocktails, as needed), spending time with my friends and family, and enjoying San Diego’s nearly perfect weather and amazing food scene. You can often find me watering my increasingly large collection of plants (it’s getting out of hand…), going for a swim (in a pool! The Pacific is too cold for my Florida upbringing!), or drinking more coffee than medically recommended.
