I'm a third-year PhD candidate in Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. I received my BS in Neuroscience and my BA in Latin from Mercer University in May, 2019. At Mercer, I worked in the lab of Dr. Katie Northcutt for three years, studying the neural basis of play behavior in rats. I also had the incredible opportunity to study abroad in both Greece and Sicily as part of my Latin training, thanks to the generous support of the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation..

At Sinai, I'm doing my thesis work in the Rudebeck Lab, where my projects are focused around comparing the nature of interactions between amygdala and frontal cortex across multiple species. I'm interested in the evolution of prefrontal cortex in particular, and how large-scale changes in brain structure throughout evolution might be reflected in both neuroanatomy and neuronal physiology. I'm also passionate about applying modern data science techniques to neuroscience data.

For my thesis, I'm applying novel sequencing-based neuroanatomy techniques to understand the structural basis of frontal brain networks. Then, primarily using Python (as well as other statistical programming platforms), I'm comparing the statistical structure of neural spiking activity from a number of model species commonly used in neuroscience. Finally, I'm gearing up to begin an electrophysiology project to confirm in vivo the features I've identified in the pervious two aims.

When I'm not in the lab, I'm involved in a couple of outreach groups, including MiNDS, where I teach introductory neuroscience courses to middle school students in East Harlem (or, at least I did before COVID; we have done some virtual classes until we're allowed back in person). I am also on the executive board of Project SHORT, an organization that provides pro bono consulting to prospective MD and PhD students from communities traditionally underrepresented in STEM -- I lead outreach for PhD students, and I recently oversaw a major redesign of our website. Outside of science, I enjoy learning to cook new recipes, skateboarding around New York City, and playing with my two cats, Luna and Lark.