Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, spending my time fishing and hiking while searching for critters, I developed a curiosity for the unseen interplay between an organism’s environment and its behavioral response.

In 2013, I graduated with a B.S. in Ecology and a B.S. in Biology from Seattle Pacific University. It was while working with Dr. Ryan Ferrer that I began to hone my research interests and develop my goals to pursue a career in academia.

Despite my eagerness to begin a career in research, my journey to graduate school took a “non-linear” path. A few years between undergrad and graduate school afforded me the opportunity to further develop my interests and learn new skills. During this time I was able to work in the biomedical field, teach coral reef ecology in Belize, and assist with a study of elephant behavior.

In 2022, I received my PhD in Zoology from the University of Florida where I conducted research at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience in the lab of Dr. James Liao. My dissertation reveals the mechanisms and evolution of of sensory feedback and signal transduction of hair cells in the lateral line system of fishes.

Currently, I am a Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) postdoctoral fellow in the Spinal Sensory Signalling team of Dr. Claire Wyart at the Paris Brain Institute (ICM) where I am working to understand the integration of sensory information to recruit motor neurons within command circuits in the hindbrain that select behavioral respones.