I was born and raised in the small town of Morro Bay on the Central Coast of California. After completing high school, I attended the Illinois Institute of Technology for my undergraduate education in biomedical engineering. During that time, I spent 6 months studying abroad at the School of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSIT) at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) in Spain. After obtaining my bachelor's degree, I entered the biomedical engineering Ph.D. program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where I obtained two master's degrees in biomedical and electrical engineering while conducting my Ph.D. research on RF pulse design for MRI. Upon defending my Ph.D. in September 2018, I moved to Glasgow, Scotland where I began as a post-doctoral researcher and then lecturer working on parallel-transmit (pTx) 7 tesla MRI at the Imaging Centre of Excellence (ICE) of the University of Glasgow. I am currently working at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) where my research continues to involve pTx work for ultra-high fields, as well as MRI physics and pulse sequence development for conventional field strengths (1.5 and 3 tesla).

Outside of research, I enjoy running, dancing, cooking, playing and listening to music, practicing yoga, and pub quizzing. Dance has always been a constant in my life, and I currently practice lyrical/contemporary dance Stepsbay in Pozuelo de Alarcón. I also enjoy running distance races non-competitively, and I am currently training for the 2026 Madrid Marathon. In the past I completed the Chicago Marathon in October 2014 and the New York City Marathon in November 2016, along with a handful of half marathons.