Pain has never been just a clinical term for me. It is something I have grown up with, watching my dad live with psoriatic arthritis, seeing my grandmother fight ovarian cancer, supporting my younger brother on the autism spectrum, and navigating my own experiences with ADHD. These are not just health conditions. They are real, everyday challenges that have shaped the way I think about medicine, not as a system, but as something personal, human, and often unevenly experienced.

​

That understanding is what draws me to science. To better understand this pain, I have spent time in both wet labs and clinical settings, designing experiments, analyzing data, and asking hard questions. Whether studying how music affects the brain, testing the sterilizing power of UVC light, or investigating inflammation in cardiac tissue, I have always been driven by one goal, to find insights that matter to real people.

​

Through Connect2Health, I have worked to help people overcome the social and structural barriers that make it hard for them to get the care they need. In research, I have explored how suffering happens biologically, socially, and emotionally, and what we can do to reduce it in ways that are fair and inclusive.

​

Research has taught me to think clearly, be patient when answers take time, and to keep going with care and focus. More than anything, it has shown me that behind every chart or data set is a person’s story—someone like my family or someone I’ve met through my work. The excitement of finding meaningful answers that connect to real life keeps me curious. Making my own experiments has helped me build critical thinking and determination, and it has given me a deep sense of respect for how complex life is. I use these skills even outside of research to better understand big problems and find solutions.

​

​

​​You can explore my research spanning the Hale Lab, LITT, UVC sterilization, neuroscience of music, diabetes prevention in Latino families, firefighter nutrition, and rare pathogens like brain-eating amoebas.

​

Coming soon: My newest project on addressing social determinants of health in patients with opioid use disorder in the emergency department.