CURRENT APPOINTMENTS

Assistant Professor     Department of Earth Sciences, Southern Methodist University  2022-
Affiliate Faculty     Data Science Institute, Southern Methodist University  2022-
Affiliate Faculty     Center for Drug Discovery, Design, and Delivery (CD4), Southern Methodist University  2023-

PAST APPOINTMENTS

Postdoctoral Fellow     Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography  2019-2022
​Research Fellow     Department of Microbial and Environmental Genomics, J. Craig Venter Institute  2021-2022
Research Affiliate     Climate and Ecosystem Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory  2018
Graduate Student Researcher     Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of California, Irvine   2014-2018
Research Associate     Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of California, Los Angeles  2012-2013
Research Assistant     National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Teaching  2009-2010

EDUCATION

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)     Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine  2014-2018
Master of Science     Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of California, Irvine  2014-2017
Bachelor of Science     Biological Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles  2008-2012

ABOUT ME

I'm a converted ecologist trying to figure out microbes

Born and raised in Southern California. I attended UCLA for my undergraduate studies where I became fascinated with the field of community ecology. The central question of what processes control biodiversity was so interesting that I became obsessed with plant diversity in tropical forests. Particularly, why were there so many more plant species in the tropical regions vs. boreal forests or the California landscape? But if you want to study biodiversity, why stop at plants?? Better to just jump in the deep-end as there is nothing better than looking at the most diverse organisms on the planet, microbes! I finished my PhD under Dr. Jennifer Martiny at UC Irvine where I investigated the ecological and evolutionary processes contributing to biogeographic patterns (diversity and distribution) of microbes.

Also, I am a HUGE fan of English bulldogs, including the best one ever, Nala (pictured).

CONSERVATION
​Introduction to the beauty and importance of a tropical biology field station