I am a double Jumbo with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Tufts School of Arts and Sciences and a master’s degree in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition from the Friedman School. While a Friedman student (2015-2017), I conducted research at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging and was a regular volunteer at the Boston Medical Center’s Preventive Food Pantry, which provides healthy food “prescriptions” for low-income patients with nutrition-related health issues. After working for a year in the health sciences in San Francisco, I sought to learn more about the agricultural side of the food system. This desire (along with the warm weather) led me northeast to the University of California-Davis, where I returned to school to complete my PhD.
As a PhD student in Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry, my research has been highly interdisciplinary, and I have been able to make invaluable connections with researchers across the natural, social, and data sciences who share my passion for food systems innovation, from molecules to society. My dissertation work has been funded in part by the International Center for Food Ontology Operability Data and Semantics (IC-FOODS), which is dedicated to research, development, and education in the emerging field of “food informatics.”
During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I took some time off from my PhD to work as researcher and consultant at HowGood—a venture-backed, mission-driven startup building a sustainability intelligence platform for the food industry. During the 2.5 years I worked there, I was part of both technical and business teams, giving me the opportunity to become proficient in food information systems, food sustainability research, corporate sustainability reporting, and startup operations. This year (2025), I am focusing on finalizing my dissertation, which bridges the fields of foodomics and food informatics, as well as co-editing the first graduate-level textbook in food informatics—to be published by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2026.
Throughout my PhD, I have also developed deep expertise in career development and a passion for social entrepreneurship. In this vein, I co-founded a personal and professional development community for STEM and sustainability (S^2TEM) professionals, called Golden Acorn in December 2020. And in the spring of 2023, with an AFE alum, I co-founded and currently run The Job Feed, which is dedicated to empowering a workforce that shapes the future of food for social and environmental good.
If you’re on the job or internship hunt, check out The Job Feed’s flagship “Sustainable Food Jobs” LinkedIn Newsletter here: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7074461318300200960.
