About Me

Doctor of Pharmacy (2018), B.S. Pharmaceutical Studies and Minor in Creative Writing (2016), University of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas, USA)

I am a proud alumnus of the University of Kansas Honors Program and School of Pharmacy (2018). Though I attended school in the very town I was born, I found no shortage of opportunities to develop clinical and laboratory research skills. I worked with Dr. Jeff Krise in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry for several years, exploring how certain drugs distribute within cells, how this can emulate intracellular disorders characteristic of sone neurodegenerative diseases, and what chemicals or drugs could correct these disorders. 

In 2015, I was selected as an Amgen Scholar and worked with Dr. Tim Wencewicz in the Department of Chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis to characterize the enzyme kinetics of a class of enzymes produced by soil bacteria that inactivate the commonly used tetracycline class of antibiotics. We hoped to better understand and identify inhibitors for these enzymes should this form of resistance pass on to pathogenic bacteria responsible for human and animal infections. This research was instrumental in cementing my interests in antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

MPhil Biological Sciences (2017), Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge (Cambridge, United Kingdom)

Building upon these interests in AMR, from 2016 to 2017 I pursued my MPhil in Biological Sciences as a Gates Cambridge Scholar working under Dr. Hendrik van Veen in the University of Cambridge's Department of Pharmacology. There, I continued to explore my interests by investigating a different form of AMR: a multidrug protein pump called PatAB that is found in Streptococcus pneumoniae, an important bacteria responsible for most community-acquired pneumonia infections. PatAB is able to pump some antibiotics out of bacterial cells before they can work, so my work focused on determining whether manipulations to a specific, potentially critical part of that protein would result in the loss of activity. My results showed that it did (!), identifying a potential target for future antibiotics.

My thesis was titled: Investigating the Effects of H-Loop Mutations on Substrate Selectivity in the Heterodimeric ABC Transporter PatAB.

Research and Development Researcher (2018-2020), Access to Medicine Foundation (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Shortly before applying for the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, I began to think more critically about issues of health inequity in the United States and beyond. Riffing on the oft-quoted philosophical query about trees falling in forests with no one around, I wondered "If I develop a drug but the people who need it the most can't access it, will it have made a difference?" 

I pursued this thought, and after completing my Doctor of Pharmacy, I began work at the Access to Medicine Foundation in Amsterdam, Netherlands as the Research and Development (R&D) Researcher for the Access to Medicine Index. The Index monitors and evaluates the activities and commitments of 20 of the largest global pharmaceutical companies to assess what they are (or are not) doing to expand access to health technologies for patients living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). 

Over the two years I was there, I contributed to several publications including a revised methodology for the next iteration of the Index, the Foundation's first ten-year longitudinal report of the pharmaceutical industry titled Are pharmaceutical companies making progress when it comes to global health?, and a viewpoint on COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic. I also helped to lead a company training of the new Index methodology in Tokyo, Japan and solidified new interests in access to innovative health technologies in LMICs and incentives for R&D for neglected diseases (those which primarily affect people living in LMICs and are thus viewed as less lucrative targets by Pharma).

PhD Student (2020-2024), Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health (Baltimore, Maryland, USA)

I pursued a PhD because I wanted to build upon the research skills and interests that I had built at the Access to Medicine Foundation, to ensure that I had my educational bases covered in methodologies common to public health research, and to explore my interests through independent research. My dissertation research focuses on assessing the value of new and emerging technologies and approaches to integrated serosurveillance in LMICs. 

Serological surveillance or 'serosurveillance' refers to the collection and analysis of blood or saliva specimens from patients to look for antibodies: the disease-specific proteins that our body produces to fight infections. By taking many specimens from a community, we can create a snapshot of what a community's level of immunity and exposure is against a certain disease. This can then guide the targeting and deployment of public health interventions like vaccine campaigns to close immunity gaps, inform whether interventions like mass drug administration campaigns for certain neglected tropical diseases are working, and to identify where certain infectious diseases might be newly emerging or re-emerging.

USAID Science for Development Fellow, Malaria Technical Advisor for the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (October 2024-February 2025)

In 2024, I was selected as one of sixteen doctorate-level scientists in the first—and now only—cohort of USAID Science for Development Fellows. For four months, I was a member of the Case Management and Supply Chain Teams at the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI): the largest coordinated effort to reduce malaria infections and deaths in the highest-burden countries. In this time, I contributed to the development of frameworks and technical guidance to combat antimalarial drug resistance (AMDR) as well as stakeholder engagement activities to coordinate product introduction, manufacturer diversification, and incentives for multiple first-line therapies to slow the rise of AMDR.

As we neared the 20th anniversary of PMI, USAID was thrown into disarray by the Trump Administration's attempts to dissolve the agency, and the Science for Development Fellowship was sadly terminated.