MD/PhD Student
Epidemiology
B.A. at Wellesley College, MPH at University of Texas Medical Branch, MD/PhD Candidate at UNC Chapel Hill
I am working on my dissertation with Sylvia Becker-Dreps assessing the effects of maternal genetics and human milk oligosaccharides on enteric infection outcomes in Nicaraguan children. Specifically, we are interested in whether oligosaccharides affect the risk of Campylobacter jejuni and rotavirus in children by acting as decoy receptors in the small intestine or by shaping the gut microbiome to prevent infection.
Previously, I also worked with Jessica Lin on the COHOST COVID-19 household transmission study in NC and on the TranSMIT study of malaria epidemiology in Tanzania. I’ve also worked with Ross Boyce on a study of geographic determinants of HIV viral load in rural Uganda, and on a study with Natalie Bowman and Sylvia Becker-Dreps on sexual transmission of Zika virus in Nicaragua.
I was fortunate enough to be awarded a G.E.R.M. fellowship in the summer of 2019 through IDSA, the Ben Keane Travel Fellowship in Tropical Medicine in the summer of 2022 through ASTMH, and was a UJMT Fogarty Fellow in the 2022-2023 fellowship year.
