I was born and raised in State College, Pennsylvania. After graduating, I moved 700 miles south to attend the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. While in school, I was involved with the Alpha Eta Mu Beta Biomedical Engineering Honor Society, Biomedical Engineering Ambassadors, and various mentoring programs, and worked as an undergraduate research assistant. This was my first real exposure to research, and I found that I really enjoyed it and became very interested in the research opportunities a graduate degree would provide me. I was very fortunate to work with encouraging mentors and a lab group that became a like family, which inspired me to find the same environment for my graduate degree. I’m grateful to have found another family with the Athanasiou group. Extracurricularly, I danced on Georgia Tech’s Goldrush dance team for 4 years, and cheered professionally for the Atlanta Falcons during my last year in college. I graduated with high honors with my B.S. in Biomedical Engineering in May 2011 and moved to Sacramento in July 2011. After moving to the Sacramento area, I continued to dance professionally for the Sacramento Kings and Football’s Fabulous Females, the Oakland Raiderettes. I earned my Ph.D. under Dr. Athanasiou at UC Davis and moved with the lab to UC Irvine to continue my work as a Translational Post-doctoral Fellow, focusing not only on furthering our research, but also exploring opportunities for commercialization of our technologies. Toward this end, I am also pursing a master’s degree in Regulatory Science from the University of Southern California, on the side. In addition to my research, I serve as the Director of Outreach for the Science Cheerleaders, a non-profit organization of current and retired professional cheerleaders with degrees and careers in STEM fields. We lead science-based activities and perform science-themed dances at events to playfully challenge stereotypes and encourage young women to pursue their dreams.
