In the Department of Environmental Health at Boston University School of Public Health and an NSF trainee in BU URBAN, I am pursuing a Doctorate degree through coursework, research, and teaching opportunities. I study the health effects of environmental exposures related to food production in urban and rural spaces.

I work to extract health data from medical records and analyze the patient database for the Chagas clinic within the Infectious Disease Clinic at Boston Medical Center. This position requires collaboration with community partners servicing impacted refugee and immigrant populations and data analysis softwares (Excel and R).

As a Summer 2020 Intern, I contributed to work done by the Risk Assessment team on several EPA- and ATSDR-funded projects. I worked at the intersection between government regulatory bodies and public stakeholders. Additionally, I conducted a systematic literature review ending with data extraction for toxicological profile updates. I gained communication and organization related skills that allowed me to work efficiently with a virtual team spread across the US.

As a Research Technician I in Dr Steve Schoenberger's cancer immunothearpy research lab, I executed individual projects and worked in a team setting. I trained extensively at various in vivo and in vitro techniques, participated in weekly lab meetings, and contributed to manuscript preparation. My developed wet lab skills include cell culture, flow cytometry, kill assays, and virus production and transduction.

As an Adjunct Professor, I taught the lab portion of an undergraduate microbiology course titled "Microbiology of Infectious Disease". Some of my responsibilities included: prepare and execute weekly 3-hour lab; deliver pre-lab lecture; facilitate in-class discussions on weekly reading and experimentation; evaluate lab reports and participation. This position provided a challenging environment where I improved my oral presentation skills through explaining complex scientific concepts to students of varying understanding.

For two years during my undergraduate career, I worked in a lab combining environmental microbiology with bioinformatics. Along with a team of 7 undergraduate researchers led by two PhD's, I studied plasmid-mediated antibiotic resistance, mostly isolated from gram negative bacteria. Samples taken from the Tijuana River Estuary on the boarder of USA and Mexico were selected for antibiotic resistance, and the plasmids they contain were isolated, characterized, tested for transferability, and sequenced. The plasmids are further annotated and assembled.Through this position, I acquired skills of bacterial DNA isolation/preparation, sequence analysis, and bi-parental bacterial matings, PCR, ELISA, and beginning experience with qPCR and next-gen sequencing.

During my undergraduate career, I worked as a lab Teacher's Assistant (TA) and academic tutor for Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Organismal Biology, & Microbiology courses. My responsibilities included lab space preparation, assisting the professor in teaching lab skills, grading reports, and leading review sessions (up to 50 people). Through this position, I gained invaluable experience in explaining advanced procedures and scientific research processes to students, as well as exemplifying proper lab technique and operation of instruments (i.e. micropipette usage, sonicators, rotors, light microscopes, etc). It was also my responsibility to teach and show appropriate safety and clean up protocols.

In my position as an Urban Garden Intern, I cared for and studied a large scale urban garden that is classified as an ethnobotanical, California-native and organic garden, as well as a Monarch Butterfly and bird sanctuary. I observed native and local bird species as supported by a grant from the Cornell Lab for Ornithology.Part of my duties were to lead an Earth Day education program of water-conserving garden beds and appropriate planting seasons and areas. I also planned and planted my own water-conserving garden bed; vegetables and herbs were harvested from my water beds and used in the café of World Beat Center.