I worked with U12G and U13B competitive teams playing in the Madison Area Youth Soccer Association league. As head coach I was responsible for scheduling and facilitating training sessions, developing co-constructed goals with players and parents, and preparing players for high school soccer.

Within the NIH and NIDDK, the NIDDK FAB is a group of ~35 volunteer NIDDK fellows who work together to support the NIDDK fellow community. The NIDDK INFORMER is a quarterly magazine with information about the Annual NIDDK Scientific Conference that FAB hosts, information from some of the offices within the institute, as well as a myriad of artwork, photos, or recommendations submitted by NIDDK fellows. My role as editor is to receive, edit submissions and ultimately put together, format, and design the magazine. During my time as editor, the number of submissions increased, and the audience has now expanded beyond the NIDDK fellows to the entire NIDDK institute.

I'm affiliated with three teams across the NIH. At the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), I work with Dr. Kong Chen to identify and characterize the components of energy metabolism across different clinical populations. Additionally, I am a member of the Metabolic Clinical Research Unit (MCRU) led by Dr. Chen. Here, I collaborate with a variety of teams throughout the NIH Clinical Center to provide metabolic testing for their patient populations. Testing involves using whole-room indirect calorimeter rooms or carts, and body composition assessments using DEXA and 3D Body scanners, Bioelectric Impedance Spectroscopy, and Bod Pod tests.In conjunction with the lab of Dr. Aaron Cypess, we connect aspects of energy metabolism to characterize, recruit, and activate brown adipose tissue (BAT), a thermogenic, active organ. The therapeutics we study are aimed at activating BAT will pave avenues to burn calories and improve insulin sensitive, which will ultimately combat metabolic diseases such as type II diabetes and obesity. My projects between these two labs focus on utilizing Magentic Resonance (MR)-based imaging modalities (MRI, NMR) to image BAT volume and activity, and teasing apart the thermophysiological differences, particularly BAT and muscle response to cold stress, between Black and White lean, young men.At the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), I work with Dr. Adam Schiffenbauer from the Environmental Autoimmunity Group to evaluate the utility of DEXA imaging to assess and characterize calcinosis in patients with dermatomyositits. While computed tomography (CT) is considered the gold standard for imaging the extent of calcinosis in this patient population, DEXA provides a cheaper, more accessible, and most importantly, safer modality for imaging calcinosis. My project aims to compare CT, DEXA, and physician assessments to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of using DEXA for this purpose.

When people think of sports in Alaska, soccer is not one that comes to mind. However, in the winter, high school gyms teemed with practices and leagues, while in the summer, teams practicing well past 10 pm because of Alaska’s long summer days. I had the privilege to work with players year-round.During the fall, I worked with middle school players whose abilities spanned from basic to competitive. Every season, I loaded my cart with bright orange t-shirts from Michael’s and iron-on logos. Fostering an inclusive environment where every player had tailored training specific to their skill level was a challenge, but pushed me to be creative and open-minded, and I enthused skillful players to become models and leaders. Players’ newfound excitement for soccer and comradery resulted in fun and successful seasons. The following spring, I coached the boys’ and girls’ varsity high school soccer teams. Many faces I recognized from middle school seasons from prior years. I especially enjoyed working with this group because of the diversity of personalities and future ambitions. These players are now future welders, engineers, nurses, and some have continued to complement their studies with soccer. Through coaching hundreds of players, I learned valuable lessons in patience, communication, and education.

RC Lawn Care and Services 2017-2019Thomas Lawn Services LLC 2020-2021I never thought my grandpa lending me funds to buy my first lawn mower would turn into a business. My business grew from my teacher’s rental properties to their family’s properties, to the neighbors, and finally to properties sprinkled throughout Fairbanks. Newspaper and Facebook ads and cold calls lengthened the customer list. Along with geographical expansion, the business began acquiring employees and expanding the range of services with new equipment.After high school, I transitioned RC Lawn Care to Thomas Lawn Services LLC. This business structure helped the hiring process, acquiring workers comp and general liability insurance, and filing taxes. I learned valuable lessons in marketing, customer service, management, small engine and lawn equipment maintenance, and running a business. This experience went far beyond beautifying lawns, but transformed the way I communicate, lead, and care and be there for others. For many clients, hiring us to mow their lawn was because they were physically unable to. I empathized with these clients and made efforts to drive down the cost by using their equipment or prolonging the time between visits. Honesty, customer service, and the impact of relationships became evident through these experiences, and I still carry countless valuable lessons with me today. In my final year of operation, I had four employees, fifty clients, and a plethora of equipment.

Hibernation is composed of two stages: torpor and intermittent arousals. As a step to unravel avenues to decrease the metabolic rate in humans, I hypothesized that torpid and aroused arctic ground squirrels (AGS) will have different neurochemical profiles.Using MR spectroscopy, I ascertained the presence and concentration of metabolites during each hibernation stage. I transferred hibernating AGS from the UAF’s animal housing facility and brought them into the MRI suite. I placed a temperature sensor on the AGS head during scans to monitor whether an AGS was beginning to initiate arousal to wake up. For multiple months, I recorded hibernation statuses, helped operate the MRI to acquire images and spectra, and followed strict IACUC protocols to work with AGS.The UAF Molecular Imaging Facility has two nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) instruments, in addition to their MRI. With neural tissue samples, I utilized NMR spectroscopy, specifically High Resolution Magic Angel Spinning (HR-MAS), to compose a dataset of AGS brain metabolites, and their concentrations. To get more time with the instruments and aid my project, I took a class on practical NMR spectroscopy and was the first to trial a Chenomx license that UAF acquired. Chenomx was designed to help predict what was present on a spectrum by outfitting the obtained spectra with peaks from known molecules. After acquiring water-suppressed spectra from several AGS brains and using a known sucrose concentration to translate the amplitudes of the peaks into approximate concentrations, the data suggest, relative to other metabolites, AGS brains had high concentrations of myo-Inositol and glutamate, a carbocyclic sugar and a neurotransmitter, respectively. Using therapies that attempt to replicate homologous neurochemical profiles in humans could help identify potential mechanisms to induce a drastic decrease in metabolic demand and apply it to human health.

There are 15 extant marmot species, but only one is exclusively melanistic (dark pelage). To understand the evolutionary history of melanism, I first sought to identify its genetic underpinnings. Two genes are largely responsible for conferring pelage color in mammals: the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) and agouti signaling protein (ASIP) genes. However, an MC1R mutation is absent in VIM, therefore, I hypothesized that the causative mutation in this species may lie in ASIP. Throughout this project, I secured two grants summating to $6,000.Because the VIM is endangered, I had limited tissue to work with, thus ensuring the effectiveness of PCR primers in their sister species, the Hoary marmot, was an essential first step to address my hypothesis. PCR amplicons and primer effectiveness were assessed by gel electrophoresis. The amplicons from 35 Hoary marmot individuals were collected and sequenced using Sanger sequencing. The published genome for the VIM is missing data near the ASIP, so the PCR primers required more fine-tuning, and even then, the gel electrophoresis yielded two products in some wells meaning that the primer pairs attached to the same regions in both duplicates. Because two products cannot be distinguished via Sanger sequencing, I used Nanopore minION to sequence reactions containing double amplicons. After identifying the two sequences present in each reaction, I aligned these to the published VIM genome to fill in most assembly gaps. The results suggested that an inversion occurred within the VIM ASIP gene, which introduced a deletion into the gene’s promoter region. This is highly suggestive that an inversion in ASIP causes melanism in VIM, and future studies to assay ASIP mRNA and protein expression could confirm this. Because the ASIP gene is pleiotropic, a dysfunction in ASIP expression could confer other effects besides melanism, including speculated aggression and increased immunity.

I process COVID-19 and immunology specimens received from throughout Alaska. I help maintain testing equipment and overall functionality and efficiency of the lab.

I clean, catalogue, organize, and perform other duties in the mammal collection and mammal labs to maintain cleanliness, organize the collection, and educate the public.There is a secret, catacomb-like storage area called The Range that spreads below the feet of visitors appreciating the museum exhibits. The Range is home to countless specimens and items ranging from Narwhal tusks and Hadrosaur fossils, to Native Alaskan art and gold prospector pickaxes. I assisted the mammalogy department where we accepted, collected tissue from, and accessioned deceased mammals that anyone could leave at our backdoor.