I was born in Southern California but have lived two-thirds of my life in Las Vegas. I attended the Las Vegas Academy for Visual and Performing Arts and majored in art for four years.

After graduating high school, UNLV seemed like a very logical choice for me. I had received the Millennium Scholarship, which would help with tuition costs, and I wanted to stay close to family. It turned out to be a great idea. UNLV was very good to me as an undergraduate. I met some great people and started on a great research project that I had to see through as a graduate student.

I am starting my second year of graduate school in the School of Life Sciences.

I don’t think you choose an area of study, the area chooses you. You go through your classes and one day one of them stops you in your tracks and you have to know more, so you pursue it. Many years after taking general microbiology as an undergraduate, here I am getting my doctorate in a microbial genetics lab.

Though I studied art in high school and while art and science may seem like opposites, I feel there is room to be more creative in science. You design experiments instead of artwork, but experiments can be limited by lack of imagination and creativity just like art.

I would love to be a professor at a university with my own lab full of students.

Let the career and field of study choose you. Opportunities will come when you love what you do.

I am currently the co-outreach coordinator for the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) student chapter. ASM is composed of more than 40 graduate and undergraduate students from many different science backgrounds. We have a mission to bring science to the community, specifically K-12 students. To help us with this goal, we have been lucky enough to establish some great collaborations with local organizations like the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Northwest Career & Technical Academy High School, the UNLV Multicultural Program, and more recently, the nonprofit group Youth Outdoor Unity (Y.O.U). So far, response at our events from students has been amazing. We can see faces light up and their brains churning with new ideas. As a club we are always looking to expand and reach out to more students, and we welcome new opportunities to do that.

I received several awards as an undergraduate student. As a graduate student I was lucky enough to receive the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. It is a very competitive grant that funds a student’s research for up to three years.

When I am not involved in my research, schoolwork, or ASM activities, I like to spend time with family and friends. I have a beautiful daughter that keeps me busy at home.