I grew up in the central valley of California, in a town called Davis known for its university and misguided construction of frog-sized tunnels under I-80. At various points in my young life I aspired to be an orchestral euphonium player, LEGO stop-motion animator, secret spy, jazz musician, Jedi knight, Dinosaur, Sci-Fi writer, etc. A biology teacher who worked at Davis Senior High School in 2013 (whose name I forget) gave a particularly inspiring lecture on chlorophyll which irreversibly shunted me towards a career in biology (at just the right time since my band had failed to make it big despite weeks of bimonthly practice sessions).
In 2015 I matriculated in the Behavioral/Cognitive Neuroscience Major at Colorado State University, expecting to "control brainwaves with music to cure anxiety". Needless to say it didn't work, and after being humbled by the shape of the action potential and the contingencies on which it is based I discovered a love of teaching through working extensively as a teaching assistant for undergraduate neurobiology and neuroanatomy courses.
In 2019 I started my Masters degree in Anatomical and Physiological Sciences at Colorado State University, where I became heavily involved in the human anatomy dissection program. As this masters degree was focused on building teaching skills I spent my second year coordinating the lab portion of a Functional Neuroanatomy course. I joined the faculty at Front Range College for one year in the spring of 2021 to teach an Anatomy and Physiology course for pre-nursing students.
In the Fall of 2021, I began my PhD in the department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Boston University, working under the systems neurobiologist Dr. Mike Wallace. I am currently working on a project to disentangle the circuits of threat-avoidance and reward-seeking in the basal ganglia.
In 2015 I matriculated in the Behavioral/Cognitive Neuroscience Major at Colorado State University, expecting to "control brainwaves with music to cure anxiety". Needless to say it didn't work, and after being humbled by the shape of the action potential and the contingencies on which it is based I discovered a love of teaching through working extensively as a teaching assistant for undergraduate neurobiology and neuroanatomy courses.
In 2019 I started my Masters degree in Anatomical and Physiological Sciences at Colorado State University, where I became heavily involved in the human anatomy dissection program. As this masters degree was focused on building teaching skills I spent my second year coordinating the lab portion of a Functional Neuroanatomy course. I joined the faculty at Front Range College for one year in the spring of 2021 to teach an Anatomy and Physiology course for pre-nursing students.
In the Fall of 2021, I began my PhD in the department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Boston University, working under the systems neurobiologist Dr. Mike Wallace. I am currently working on a project to disentangle the circuits of threat-avoidance and reward-seeking in the basal ganglia.
