I am a psychoneuroimmunologist by training, having earning my PhD from the Psychology & Neuroscience PhD program at Duke University while working in Dr. Staci Bilbo's Lab. Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of how the nervous and immune systems interact, often in the context of mental health. I am particularly interested in how early-life experiences can "program" neonates for risk or resilience to mental disorders later in life. In 2015, I started my postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California-Irvine, working in the lab of Dr. Tallie Z. Baram in the Departments of Pediatrics and Anatomy/Neurobiology. I am studying the role of microglia, the immune cells of the brain, in sculpting stress-sensitive neural circuitry following early-life stress during critical periods of development, as well as in the cognitive deficits and emotional vulnerabilities we observe in adulthood. Recently, my work in the Baram Lab has been awarded with funding by a NARSAD Young Investigator Grant and an NIMH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Grant. I am excited to share that I will be opening the Bolton Lab and starting my new position as an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Georgia State University in January 2021!