I grew up in Bellevue in Washington State. After highschool I attended Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA, where I studied Neuroscience. As an undergraduate, I worked in the lab of Dr. Jeff Carroll studying Huntington’s Disease in rodent models, an experience that inspired me to pursue a career in neuroscience. I continued my education at Johns Hopkins earning an MSc degree in Biotechnology. After graduating, I began working as a chemistry and biology instructor at a small community college in Eastern Washington where I developed a passion for teaching. I am currently continuing my education at Simon Fraser University where I am working on an MSc in Biology in the lab of Dr. Michael Silverman. Here I study the mechanisms of axonal transport in cultured human iPSC-derived neuron models.