Vice President
I
am a second year Experimental Pathology PhD here at UTMB. Prior to
graduate school, I completed my BS in Microbiology at Virginia Tech,
where I researched antibiotic-resistance genes as contaminants in
wastewater systems using Ion Torrent and Illumina next-generation
sequencing. My research interests going into my PhD program center
around virulence evolution and ecology of emerging/neglected infectious
diseases, and I am in Dr. Rossi and Dr. Freiberg’s labs researching
persistent infection of Ebola virus.
My
community work as an undergraduate involved organizing and leading an
Indigenous x STEM alliance that worked to educate wildlife scientists on
how to research respectfully on Native land as well as volunteering to
help give the local Appalachian-Virginian community access to free HIV
testing.
As
the new Vice President of the Graduate Student Organization (GSO), I
hope to aid in fostering a healthy and welcoming graduate student
community. The GSO can be reached by students with any concerns by
emailing gso@utmb.edu.