Residency:  Internal Medicine & Rheumatology, Physician Scientist Training Pathway, University of California San Diego. June 2021 - Present.

I grew up in the small rural town of Dudley, Massachusetts and moved to Colorado in high school. I graduated summa cum laude from University of Colorado in Boulder with a bachelor's degree in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and a minor in French in 2011. As an undergraduate, I completed a senior honors thesis studying tissue-specific RNA interference in the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans. I discovered a passion for immunology and I was able to pursue this interest in Dr. Scott Alper's Lab at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado. I studied the role of vesicular trafficking in the regulation of innate immunity in both C. elegans and mouse macrophages.

I joined the KU Medical Center M.D.-Ph.D. program in 2012. I continued to study immunology and successfully completed my Ph.D. in the department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics and Immunology in 2019. My dissertation work was focused on optimizing engineered regulatory T cells to treat Graft versus Host Disease in the labs of Dr. Thomas Yankee and Dr. Mary Markiewicz. From this work, I published a first author manuscript and filed a U.S. patent. I was able to carry out clinically relevant work by generating a cell therapy with primary human samples and directly studying human T cells.

My career goal is to be a clinical immunologist in Rheumatology. I plan to continue investigating T cell polarization and Treg function in the context of autoimmune diseases. I hope to ultimately identify molecular or cellular T cell targets that can improve diagnostic testing and immunosuppressive regimens. I have matched into the Physician-Scientist Training Pathway at the University of California, San Diego. In the coming years, I will be completing Internal Medicine residency and a research-focused fellowship in Rheumatology. In my free time, enjoy playing roller derby, tending to my house plants and spending time with my fiancé and cats.

Mentors: Thomas Yankee, Pharm D, Ph.D., Mary Markiewicz, Ph.D., Microbiology Department