College
I got into science during college. I was in a dual-degree program with majors in Spanish and Applied Health Science. Applied Health Science was a great fit and I became a thriving member of the department. Mentors helped me figure out who I was as a person and how to leverage my strengths to create a career.
My favorite subject in my Applied Health Science major was Nutrition. I was blessed with a great teacher who provided a rigorous foundation in nutritional biochemistry and taught the course materials with passion. I found it fascinating that all of the biochemical and molecular details of our cells and physiology could relate back to the foods we eat every day. My nutrition teacher gave me extensive opportunities in research, teaching, and administration that made me a competitive applicant for graduate school.
I graduated from Wheaton with a B.S. in Applied Health Science, a B.A. in Spanish, an understanding of my identity and values, and a direction for my career.
Grad School
Me in the lab during my first year of grad school, and me after defending my dissertation. The more science I did, the longer my hair got. Correlation or causation?
I went directly from college into the Nutritional Sciences PhD program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My tuition and living expenses were fully funded by research grants and fellowships.
My coursework opened my mind to the wonderful world of cells, molecules, and biochemical reactions, and to the effects of food from cell to community. I got rigorous research training, working in both nutritional biochemistry and engineering labs, and leading projects on a large interdisciplinary team.
I began to see the computing challenges involved in scientific research. I wrote VBA macros to automate experimental data analysis and learned the SAS and R computing languages for statistical programming. I also designed some illustrations for my work, like this illustration of an assay method I developed, and this illustration describing a process called endothelial dysfunction I made for a fellowship proposal.
I also did some teaching. I ranked in the top 10% of campus teachers based on student feedback, and completed a teaching certification.
You can download my dissertation for free here, and you can look up my publications on my ORCID profile.
Postdoc
After I finished my PhD, I moved to Boston for postdoctoral research. During this time, I decided to learn software engineering and start a career in tech. You can read more about it on the Harvard page.
