In 2010, I entered the plant biology Ph.D. program at the Pennsylvania State University where I studied plant-insect interactions under Dr. Dawn Luthe’s mentorship. My dissertation research focused on maize defenses in response to above and belowground insect pests and the hormonal
regulation of those defenses. After finishing my PhD in 2017, I started my first post-doctoral research experience at Duke University with Dr. Thomas Mitchell-Olds in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). In my first post-doc, I studied rice genetic diversity in response to flooding environments, this research was funded by the NSF Post-docFellowship in the Plant Genome Research Program. At the end of 2019, I started my second post-doctoral research experience in plant-pathogen interactions with the USDA-ARS at the Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans. In 2021, became a permanent scientist with USDA-ARS at the New Orleans location, in my position within ARS food and feed safety research unit, I work in several research projects that use diverse approaches, such as systems biology, -omics, physiology, machine learning and artificial intelligence, to understand host-resistance against aflatoxin accumulation in corn and mitigate mycotoxin contamination in the fields.