Originally from Rockford, IL, I’ve spent the past eight years living and traveling all around the US and around the world. I completed my Bachelor of Arts in Zoology and Sociology at Miami University in Oxford, OH, and went on to complete my Masters of Public Health with a global health concentration at Boston University. My studies and my perennial wanderlust have taken me all over western Europe, with extended time studying in France and Switzerland, throughout the Caribbean, and to Kenya.

In January 2010, I moved to Washington D.C. for a position as a public health analyst on a large USAID project. Since that move, I’ve supported numerous USAID projects, including AIM, MCHIP, and a varied package at my current position as a Monitoring and Evaluation Associate for John Snow Inc.

I’m interested in sustainable development solutions, health system strengthening projects, and not being afraid to question the aid system as it exists today: there are always improvements that can be made, and we should learn from our past mistakes, especially when there are lives and livelihoods at stake.

Outside of my professional life, I love to SCUBA dive, and have gone on over seventy dives in the past six years in Hawaii, Australia, the Caribbean, Bonaire (Dutch Antilles) and Kenya. Food is my passion, from cooking (which I’ve been told I have a knack for) to enjoying a wonderful meal at a restaurant to learning how to make chapatis on a wood table in an outdoor kitchen at an orphanage in Kenya. I think food tells a story, helps you learn about a culture, and has an amazing way of bringing people together.