I was born and raised in Flagstaff, Arizona and graduated as valedictorian from Flagstaff High School. While still in high school, I concurrently attended Northern Arizona University, where I completed the chemistry major course requirements and conducted research on photoconductive organic polymer systems. Thereafter, I attended the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where I was a member of Lloyd House and graduated with honors in chemistry and biology. For graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley, I studied under the mentorship of the late Prof. Jeffery A. Winer. My dissertation focused on the functional organization of convergent neural circuits in the auditory forebrain. Afterwards, I received an NIH Kirschstein NRSA Fellowship to work with Prof. S. Murray Sherman at the University of Chicago, where I was a Research Associate (Assistant Professor). Since 2011, I have been on the faculty at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine.