ABOUT ME
My enthusiasm for coral conservation inadvertently stemmed from my first snorkel trip as an undergraduate, and despite the fact I did not know how to swim, I buckled my lifejacket and dove in. Since this first trip, I have learned to swim, become AAUS SCUBA certified, and began pursuing a Master’s degree in Marine and Environmental Science at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI).
Moving Forward
Developing my Masters thesis has been an integral step in narrowing down my research interests and expand on skills that make me a strong PhD candidate. I am excited to build upon the research and professional development opportunities that I have had at UVI, Pennsylvania State University, and Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution, which have reaffirmed my passion for coral research and a career in academia. I am actively seeking PhD opportunities in supportive, collaborative, interdisciplinary labs to apply to this Fall (2019). I am eager to ask interesting and purposive questions to not only advance scientific knowledge, but also contribute to coral conservation. I am enthusiastic to experience new opportunities to combine field and molecular tools to explore coral molecular ecology. I am fascinated by the role of symbiosis in coral health and disease, and look forward to the opportunity in a PhD program to ask questions to increase our understanding of how coral hosts and their associated microorganisms interact and respond to bacterial and viral pathogens under changing environmental conditions.
Why a PhD? Mentorship
My interest in a PhD is driven by my natural intellectual curiosity and enjoyment of the scientific process: the freedom and challenge of working in an academic environment combined with field work that captivates me. A productive research career in academia is my goal to pursue graduate studies, but my motivations run far deeper. As a high school dropout from a disadvantaged background, my mentors have been an invaluable support system throughout my degrees, and critical for gaining confidence in my ability to independently carry out a research project from conception to publication, as well as present my research clearly and effectively to engage experts in the field. My experience has highlighted the critical importance of mentorship in building and supporting the next generation of scientists. Inspired by my previous struggles to achieve my academic goals, I am committed to actively improving educational opportunities for students from diverse social and cultural backgrounds like myself, whose potential I believe in, and to advocate for their success.
Please see my CV below for details about how I am working to meet my career, mentoring, and outreach goals. Thanks for looking!
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Above: A Colpophyllia natans with lesions from a purported Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease infection. Dates of photographs (Left to Right): 2/1/19 - 2/12/19 - 2/21/19 - 3/3/19
Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease
My thesis is part of a larger collaborative experiment funded by the National Science Foundation which sampled six coral species in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands for microbial and viral community composition, histology, and immune response, to gain a holistic understanding of the coral and associated microbial community response to Stony Coral Tissue Loss disease.
The aims of my thesis are to understand:
(1) how the microbial community changes following SCTLD infection,
(2) how the microbial community response varies between coral species,
(3) which tissue the microbial infection originates, and
(4) compare results from St. Thomas field microbiome samples, to Florida samples.
For publications from my previous research, please see my CV above, or google scholar page:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=QYYULRQAAAAJ