“I am passionate about learning new things, which causes me to have a wide range of interests. My favorite aspect of teaching and working with my research students is helping other people also experience the joy of learning and discovery.”

I grew up in the suburbs of Boston, MA, where I attended Concord-Carlisle Regional High School. In addition to studying, I played soccer, ran track, and played jazz saxophone. As an undergraduate at Williams College, I became interested in organic chemistry and gained research experience doing organic synthesis in Hodge Markgraf’s lab and also during an exchange program in Jacques van Boom’s lab at the University of Leiden. Also as an undergraduate, I continued training as a track and field sprinter and was named an NCAA Division III All-American.

To continue my organic chemistry training, I began graduate school at Boston College and joined Scott Miller’s research group. Being interested in how organic molecules function, I studied the catalytic properties of short peptides, produced a new catalyst for enantioselective epoxidation, and identified a previously unknown orbital interaction that controls the conformational properties of some proline analogues. Additionally during graduate school, I became interested in the medicinal properties of organic molecules. The Miller group moved to Yale University midway through my graduate training, and I completed my Ph.D. there.

Hoping to learn more about the interactions between organic chemistry, biology, and medicine, I remained at Yale as a postdoctoral fellow in David Spiegel’s group, where I developed molecules that can direct components of the human immune system to identify and destroy human cancer cells. This interdisciplinary research gave me a chance to learn several techniques for working with biological systems including live cell culture.

Here at Clark, my interests continue to span the interface of organic chemistry, biology, and medicine. I teach courses on organic chemistry as well as one on the biochemistry of modern medicine and one on scientific writing and communication. For my independent research, I lead a medium-sized group of undergraduate and graduate students on projects that encompass both organic chemistry and chemical biology. I recently received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor. I also serve on the university’s undergaduate academic board and am a codirector of the university’s concentration in health, science, and society. Outside of chemistry, my current hobbies include dancing Argentine tango, playing ultimate Frisbee, practicing yoga, and cooking.

A list of my publications can be found Here