I was born and raised in California's Central Valley in Bakersfield, the breadbasket of America.
I'm a first-generation college student with a non-traditional path to graduate school and the PhD. I started at my local community college, transferred to Cal State Bakersfield for my B.A. in Political Science, and after a transformative conversation with one of my undergraduate mentors in my junior year, I began to consider a PhD and graduate school. That led me to UC Santa Barbara. I put myself through school working in care facilities for adults with disabilities.
Outside of work, I'm usually reading, drowning out the stresses of the day with music, or spending time with my husband or my rescue dog, Axel, who I've had since I was fifteen.