I was raised in a small town outside of Detroit, Michigan and got my undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  Although my major was simply “Biology”, my coursework was focused on developmental biology, genetics, and molecular biology.  During my junior and senior years at U of M, I wrote for and received a grant allowing me to work in a research lab.  This was an amazing experience and one that everybody considering a career in biology should do. 
 
Following graduation, I was hired as a laboratory technician in the same lab.  The lab was in the Department of Human Genetics and our focus was trying to find and identify disease genes in humans, specifically Aarskog syndrome ( Pasteris_etal.pdf)and X-linked Incontinentia Pigmenti (Gorski_etal.pdf).  I then went to graduate school at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City after a year and a half as a laboratory technician. 

It took me six years to earn a PhD, but it was well worth it and a very rewarding and exciting experience.  The focus of my work was to understand the genetic pathways underlying hormonal signaling and responses.  I used the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a model organism and the hormone controlled process of metamorphosis as the model system to answer my questions (Bialecki_a_etal.pdf).