CV

PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience

• Dissertation: "Neurobiological Mechanisms of Physics Learning"
• Advisor: Dr. Angela Laird

M.Sc. in Cognitive Neuroscience

• Thesis: "Task-based attentional and default mode connectivity associated with science and math anxiety profiles among university physics students"
• Advisor: Dr. Angela Laird

B.Sc. in Biology (Cum Laude)

• Quantifying Biology in the Classroom (QBIC) track
• Honor's College

Postdoctoral Researcher

• Built automated pipelines to convert unstructured neuroimaging and behavioral datasets to BIDS-compliant format for integration with modern analysis tools
• Migrated workflows to HPC clusters and containerized pipelines with Singularity to ensure consistent execution across compute environments

Graduate Researcher

• Developed a k-means clustering pipeline to characterize dynamic brain state changes associated with learning in longitudinal fMRI timeseries data
• Built post-processing pipelines using fMRIPrep and MRIQC to extract and denoise timeseries data, minimizing motion artifacts and increasing signal-to-noise for downstream statistical modeling
• Created statistical models (e.g. Linear Mixed Effects, Structural Equation Modeling, Latent Profile Analysis) to examine brain-behavioral relationships
• Analyzed staff demographic data for the ABCD Study consortium using R, implementing hypothesis testing and data visualization to inform decisions for a multi-site research task force
• Designed and delivered an introductory workshop on R programming and Tidyverse for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program, instructing 20+ graduate students on data manipulation and visualization
• Provided statistical consultation on collaborative projects, applying latent and linear methods to neuroimaging and tabular data

Graduate Teaching Assistant

• Provided instructional support and targeted tutoring for undergraduate psychology statistics courses

Medical Laboratory Scientist I

• Conducted confirmatory diagnostic testing for HIV and syphilis for public health surveillance programs

nifti2bids

• Developed a Python package to standardize unstructured neuroimaging datasets by creating utilities to create and extract metadata information (e.g. single and multi-band slice timing) from NIfTI headers for BIDS sidecar generation
• Created tools to parse and convert semi-structured behavioral experiment data (including proprietary E-Prime formats) into BIDS-compliant event files

NeuroCAPs

• Developed a Python package for fMRI brain state identification using k-means, achieving 5x faster multi-subject processing via multiprocessing with checkpointing support
• Incorporated clustering validation (e.g. Davies-Bouldin, Silhouette), KD-tree interpolation for volumetric-to-surface mapping, temporal dynamics metrics (e.g. transition probabilities), and an interactive visualization suite
• Deployed via Docker with headless VTK rendering and CLI/Jupyter interfaces; maintained >90% test coverage across OS platforms using pytest and GitHub Actions

vswift

• Created an R package for ML model evaluation, implementing custom stratified sampling, cross-validation, and nested cross-validation for hyperparameter tuning, with parallel processing support at the fold-level
• Designed a unified interface supporting classification algorithms (e.g., Regularized Logistic Regression, SVM, XGBoost, Neural Networks) while preserving algorithm-specific parameter tuning
• Incorporated automated missing data imputation and multi-metric performance assessment (precision, recall, F1) with CLI output and visualizations, including ROC and Precision-Recall curves with AUC scores using trapezoidal rule

• Dissertation Year Fellowship

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Doctoral Fellowship

• NIGMS RISE Fellowship

• FIU Ambassador Scholarship
• QBIC Scholarship
• Florida Academic Scholars
• Volunteer Recognition Award, Memorial Hospital West

Habenula alterations in resting state functional connectivity in autism

• Poster at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping, Brisbane, Australia (Accepted)

Habenula alterations in resting state functional connectivity in autism spectrum disorder

• Poster at the University of Miami's 34th Annual Neuroscience Research Day, Miami, FL

Longitudinal Changes in Dynamic Functional Connectivity Associated with Physics Learning

• Presented at the Florida Consortium on the Neurobiology of Cognition, Miami, Florida; also accepted at Graduate Student Appreciation Week at Florida International University

Task-based attention & default mode connectivity linked to STEM anxiety in university students

• Presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping, Montréal, Canada

• Journal of Open Source Software
• npj Science of Learning