I was born in Grand Rapids, MI in 1985. I have a Masters in Biochemistry from University of Colorado, Boulder. My undergraduate research at Grand Valley State University was on beta-lactamase enzymes, which are the enzymes that antibacterial resistant pathogens use to breakdown beta-lactam (penicillin-like) antibiotics. My graduate research was using cryo-electron microscopy to study the structure of CDK8 module of the Mediator complex, which is involved in cell signaling and mRNA transcription.