I am a postdoctoral data scientist in the Department of Epidemiology and Institute for Data Science in Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center with Dr. Arjun Bhattacharya and Dr. Paul Scheet. My work connects epidemiology and functional genomics using large multi-omic and clinical datasets to understand how molecular mechanisms mediate the effects of environment and behavior on health disparities across populations and generations. The overarching goal of this work is to improve cancer survivorship and maternal-child health outcomes. This work is guided by two questions: First, what are the molecular bases of population differences in cancer presentation and survivorship? Second, how does the placenta - the “master regulator” of the intrauterine environment and central to the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease - mediate maternal experiences to influence offspring health outcomes? Building on these foundational studies, I am developing an independent research program bridging cancer epidemiology with perinatal health by investigating environmental stressors and modifiable risk factors common to both domains.

I am currently seeking tenure-track Assistant Professor positions to investigate: What epigenomic changes during pregnancy contribute to the increased breast cancer risk and decreased survivorship associated with increased parity? How do environmental contaminants unique to rural areas (agricultural chemicals, oil/gas extraction byproducts) influence cancer prognosis and placental function? Do placental biomarkers from pregnancies affected by maternal dietary patterns or use of alcohol, tobacco or cannabis predict childhood metabolic outcomes, and can we leverage these for development of targeted assays for detection and prevention in vulnerable populations?

I graduated with a PhD in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences from The Pennsylvania State University in 2024, supervised by Dr. Christina Grozinger and Dr. Michael Axtell in the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. Throughout my doctoral research, in which I was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, I studied molecular mechanisms of phenotypic variation in honey bees (Apis mellifera), focusing on genetic and epigenetic regulation, including parent-of-origin intragenomic conflict, as drivers of behavioral and physiological responses to environmental conditions.

I graduated in 2019 from the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) with a BS in Neuroscience. As an undergraduate, I was awarded a research grant through the UNO Fund for Undergraduate Scholarly Experience to investigate the genetic basis of stress coping behaviors in zebrafish using CRISPR/Cas9 with Dr. Ryan Wong in the Department of Biology. I also worked with Dr. Jim Rogers in the Department of Mathematics to develop a network model of protein-protein interactions in macrophage cells to study HIV infection.

See my CV for more details.