I grew up outside of Boston, MA before moving to Pasadena, CA when I was ten and since then have been splitting my time between both coasts. I attended Middlebury College, where I studied Neuroscience and Global Health, and after graduation worked in Prof. John Gabrieli's lab at MIT for four years. It was at MIT where I developed a passion for neuroimaging research and decided to pursue a PhD in cognitive neuroscience. During my time in the Jacobs Lab, I have become fascinated by the complex relationship between endocrine status and brain structure and function, and for my dissertation I am exploring this relationship during pregnancy using precision imaging methods. I am interested in studying the impact of pregnancy on the brain for several reasons. Though over 80% of female individuals across the world will become pregnant at least once in their lifetime, we know little of how major physiological transition can impact brain health. I hope that this research can lead to a more thorough understanding of how perinatal mental illnesses, like postpartum depression, develop and why certain individuals are at greater risk than others. Given my background in cognitive neuroscience, I am also fascinated by the remarkable neuroplastic state the brain enters during pregnancy - not unlike what we see during adolescence. It appears that the neural changes we are observing during gestation are long-lasting, and may have consequences for aging trajectories later in life. 

While at UCSB, I have worked on the following projects:

In my free time I love to spend time outdoors and train for triathlons. I grew up playing water polo in high school and college, and continued playing on a masters team after college while working as the head coach for the women's team at Boston College.