Professional Background

I'm originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, but I broke the family line of Minnesota Gophers to attend the University of Wisconsin in Madison to complete my undergraduate degree. As an undergraduate, I worked as a research assistant in the laboratory of Paul Harari, a radiation oncologist and physician-scientist, where I began working on a translational research project through which we evaluated anti-tumor effects of combination therapy with AMG 232, a small molecule MDM2 inhibitor, with radiation in a variety of human tumor cell lines expressing wild type p53. After graduating in December 2013 with dual majors in Biology and Business Management, I took a full-time position in the Harari Lab as an Associate Research Specialist. During my post-graduate years working in the Harari Lab, I was able to complete the project I began as an undergraduate, assist with numerous translational research projects going on in the lab, and spearhead another independent research project in which I evaluated the effect of low-dose radiation treatment on expression of markers of immune response on tumor cells, such as immune checkpoint proteins, MHC Class I molecules, and many others.

I joined the MD/Ph.D. Program at KUMC in the summer of 2017. During the summers of 2017 and 2018, I completed rotations in four cancer research laboratories. After completing my first two years of medical school and taking the dreaded USMLE STEP 1, I joined the lab of Dr. Christy Hagan in June 2019. In Dr. Hagan's lab, my thesis project will focus on developing a better understanding of the immunosuppressive actions of progesterone receptor (PR) signaling throughout tumor development of ER/PR+ breast tumors, in both the tumor microenvironment and in breast tumor cells.

Thesis: Progesterone Promotes Immunomodulation and Impacts Tumor Growth in the Murine Mammary Gland.

Mentor:  Christy Hagan, Ph.D., Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Department

I am currently in doing clinic rotations in my M3 year.