I am originally from Southern California, where I grew up exploring California’s coasts and diving (literally and figuratively!) into science. I got my BS in Chemistry from the University of Southern California, where I also conducted research in marine microbiology, studying the effect of climate change on phytoplankton. I spent a couple years after my time at USC as a bioinformatics research technician at MIT under the advisement of Rogier Braakman and in collaboration with C-CoMP. My time with C-CoMP, in addition to connecting me with the Moran lab, motivated me to pursue my PhD in Marine Sciences at UGA. Here, I’ll be studying microbial community carbon substrate utilization using laboratory and computational methods, with the aim of identifying how climate change perturbations affect community dynamics. In my free time, I enjoy baking my way through my favorite cookbooks, exploring Georgia’s State Parks, and doing archery as a part of the competitive team at UGA!