About
I am a third-year student at Northern Arizona University (NAU) working towards a Bachelor’s in Microbiology with a minor in Chemistry. Ever since I could remember I've had a deep passion for science. In fact, my parents have a poster I made in third grade where stated I wanted to be a scientist when I grew up. Since my younger years, several things in my life have changed but my love and admiration for science has remained to this day and has directed my career aspirations. Upon the completion of my degree, I plan on going into a doctoral program in infectious disease.
Since my senior year in high school, I have been involved in research, specifically working with fungal pathogens under Dr. Bridget Barker at the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute at NAU. I have been involved in a couple of projects. One project is a citizen-science approach to understand Valley fever, a fungal infection endemic to deserts of the Americas, in dogs. My current, main project focuses on the characterization of novel Onygenalean fungi! My funding comes mainly from an NIH-RISE grant, as I am a RISE fellow.
Although my main research is with Barker lab, I received the opportunity to research abroad at the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) in Ecuador during the Summer 2019. This was made possible through the Minority Health and Health Disparities International Research Training (MHIRT) Program, an NIH funded program at NAU. My research at USFQ focused on the world's most common zoonosis, leptospirosis. My main job was to detect Leptospira spp., the causative agent of leptospirosis, through molecular detection methods.
ACADEMIC ACCOLADES
Since my senior year in high school, I have been involved in research, specifically working with fungal pathogens under Dr. Bridget Barker at the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute at NAU. I have been involved in a couple of projects. One project is a citizen-science approach to understand Valley fever, a fungal infection endemic to deserts of the Americas, in dogs. My current, main project focuses on the characterization of novel Onygenalean fungi! My funding comes mainly from an NIH-RISE grant, as I am a RISE fellow.
Although my main research is with Barker lab, I received the opportunity to research abroad at the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) in Ecuador during the Summer 2019. This was made possible through the Minority Health and Health Disparities International Research Training (MHIRT) Program, an NIH funded program at NAU. My research at USFQ focused on the world's most common zoonosis, leptospirosis. My main job was to detect Leptospira spp., the causative agent of leptospirosis, through molecular detection methods.
ACADEMIC ACCOLADES
- Research Initiative for Scientific Advancement (RISE) fellow at NAU
- Minority Health and Health Disparities International Research Training (MHIRT) student at NAU
- Helios Scholar at TGen
- Lumberjack Scholarship, full tuition scholarship for NAU
- Dean's List student