I earned my bachelor’s degree in biology and my Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Oklahoma.

The majority of my Ph.D. research employed holistic approaches to investigate how differences at the organismal and community levels drive variation at the microscopic level by studying the microbial communities (i.e., microbiomes) that inhabit reptile and amphibian host organisms.

Near the end of my Ph.D., I became interested in understanding the evolutionary mechanisms that drive snake venom variation. This exposure to snake venom research captivated my interests in a profound way, which motivated me to pursue postdoctoral research focused on functional genomics and snake venom.

Now, I am a RISE100 postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Arlington studying the gene regulatory networks that underly venom variation in reptiles. This work utilizes functional genomic datasets to identify promoters, enhancers, and transcription factors involved in venom gene regulation.