I grew up near the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, among rural Appalachian communities where a serious farm injury could become life-threatening before help arrived. Early on, I saw how much where you live shapes the care you receive.

Before college, I was a signed performing artist, songwriter, and studio owner in Richmond, Virginia. Music taught me to listen closely to people: to the emotions beneath the surface, to what goes unsaid, and to the patterns we overlook. That curiosity led me from Berklee College of Music to Columbia University in the City of New York to study psychology.

At Columbia, I supported people with serious mental illness at the Lieber Recovery Clinic, cared for more than 800 patients at CityMD, and worked on policy and community interventions to reduce incarceration and violence at the Center for Justice. I came to see that rural and urban communities share a surprisingly similar story: even where care exists, certain communities are consistently missed.

After graduating, I trained as an EMT in a Level I trauma emergency department, then came to Stanford to coordinate chronic pain research. There, that pattern became a research question: if the patients doing worst are the least likely to participate in our studies, are we designing treatments for those already doing well? I recently presented a co-first-authored poster on exactly that.

Teaching and service are another meaningful part of my life. I teach music to children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, volunteer with children with special needs at LAUMC, and mentor alumni and students as Co-Chair of Membership & Engagement for Columbia Alumni with Disabilities. To me, this is access too.

Now I'm preparing for graduate training to build research and care that reach the people who need them most.