My goals are to (1) help ensure an adequate and nutritious food supply; (2) work with and help train people who will further carry out this work in a broader cross-section of crops and geographies; and (3) bring these concepts into the classroom in an inclusive and engaging manner--discussing and reinforcing skills, knowledge, and conceptual frameworks of relevance for students both now and into the future.

My doctoral work was in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University, where I identified and characterized genes underlying carotenoid (provitamin A) and tocochromanol (vitamin E) levels in maize grain, with the substantial help of a large team of collaborators. I have also worked at the intersection of maize physiology and quantitative genetics. I became interested in the plant sciences as an undergraduate student, while studying Biology: Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Washington University in St. Louis and working as an intern and lab assistant at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.