I was born and raised in the Inland Empire. I first received my Associate’s in Science for Biology at Palomar College in San Marcos, California and then transferred to California State University San Marcos to earn my Bachelor’s in Cellular and Molecular Biology with a Minor in Chemistry. As an undergrad I worked under Dr. Dennis Kolosov to explore voltage-gated ion channel expression and abundance in animal epithelia. My curiosity of the inner workings of epigenetics led me to Dr. Maria Ninova’s lab here at UCR to understand the landscape of heterochromatin and chromatin associated non-canonical transcripts in early Drosophila embryogenesis. In my free time I enjoy keeping a variety of exotic animals (primarily tarantulas), running, video games, and Magic: The Gathering.