Student Profile
Profile:
After spending my formative years on Long Island, I pursued dual French and Psychology
degrees at SUNY New Paltz, where I became fascinated by the intersection of linguistics and
the human brain. I took a gap year after graduation in 2014 to research different neuroscience
PhD programs, and quickly realized I needed a job to pay back my imminently due student
loans. I secured a full-time position at a local bookstore, where I met many interesting
characters from all walks of life. This role taught me that no matter what career I had in the
future, I wanted there to be a human element to it. I then shifted my focus from neuroscience
to neurology, and I started in Stony Brook’s postbaccalaureate pre-medicine program not long
after. I worked in Dr. Kotov’s lab at Stony Brook, where I assisted with the longest running
longitudinal study on schizophrenia.
Once I finished at Stony Brook, I started at Upstate in 2021 as an MD-only student. However,
after volunteering in Dr. Hu’s lab and studying photoreceptor degeneration in retinitis
pigmentosa, I recognized that a career as a physician-scientist would offer the perfect blend of
research and clinical practice I had been seeking. In the Hu lab, we are trying to better
understand the mechanisms behind photoreceptor degeneration so we can develop effective
treatments and deliver higher quality outcomes for patients.
In my spare time, you can find me learning new songs on the guitar, watching Formula 1
racing, reading with my cat nestled on my lap, or working on house projects with my husband.