Education & Experience

Graduation: December 2025 

Advisor: Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi (Dept. of Botany and Plant Pathology)

Dissertation: Dissecting Plant-Microbe Interactions - MAMP Recognition and Immune Evasion in Solanaceous Hosts

Graduation: May 2020 

Honors Thesis: Mutational Inactivation of Arabidopsis RNA-dependent RNA polymerases 3 and 4 by CRISPR gene editing. 

Advisor: Hernan Garcia-Ruiz, PhD (Dept. of Plant Pathology)

August 2017 - May 2018

Student Athlete (Women's Soccer)

Mentor: Maggie Wagner, PhD (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)

• Project: The Role of Plant Immunity in Driving Maize Microbe-Dependent Heterosis

• Award Abstract # 2507640

Mentor: Maggie Wagner, PhD (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)

• Project: The Role of Plant Immunity in Driving Maize Microbe-Dependent Heterosis

Principle Investigator: Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi, PhD

• Dissertation: Characterization of pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) response to various bacterial-derived, pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) in tomato roots.

• Rotation – Chris Staiger, PhD: Actin cytoskeleton and wall-associated kinase response to common plant pathogens in Arabidopsis

• Rotation – Tesfaye Mengiste, PhD: CRISPR gene-editing of tomato for pathogen resistance

Mentor: Hernan Garcia-Ruiz, PhD (Dept. of Botany)

• Honors Thesis: Mutational Inactivation of Arabidopsis RNA-dependent RNA polymerases 3 and 4 by CRISPR gene editing. 

Direct Advisor: Dusti Gallagher, CEO

• Conducted controlled crosses between wheat varieties and implemented tissue culture methods to induce haploid embryo formation; learned skills in tissue culture, including embryo rescue, in vitro propagation, and media preparation, ensuring the success of DH line production. 

NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU)

Direct Advisor: Daniel Higgins

• Conducted undergraduate research in analytical chemistry focused on the utilization of carboxylated nanotubes in the study of drug discovery through Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy.