Alumni Profiles

My coursework at Mason built a foundation in engineering concepts; my experiences with Engineering World Health, MedX, MasonWHO, and research taught me about the vitality of contextualizing a technology’s potential impact throughout the design process.

One of the most impactful experiences was my senior design project — under the mentorship of Lance Liotta and Alessandra Luchini at the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM), I worked with a team of bioengineering students to address gaps in affordable, sensitive, and user-friendly diagnostic tests for deadly communicable diseases such as tuberculosis. I learned about point-of-care diagnostics, nanotechnology, and proteomics at the lab. However, I wanted to bridge the gap between our team and the patients we were ultimately trying to help. After graduation, I pursued a Fulbright U.S. Student Research Fellowship in Kathmandu, Nepal to conduct a user acceptability study for our technology. With the help of a local nonprofit, we interviewed about 200 active TB patients, community health workers, microbiologists, and physicians regarding our urinary TB test technology.

Post-Fulbright, I am a Data Analyst at Socially Determined, a DC startup that created the first platform for analyzing clinical, financial, and social data. We integrate social risk, clinical disease burden, utilization patterns, and demographic data to identify opportunities for intervention that will impact the populations our clients serve.

General Engineer at Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate

Volunteering in several Mason bioengineering labs, and then ultimately getting paid under the undergraduate research program, was an excellent opportunity to hone my critical thinking skills in independent research. Participating in Mason's OSCAR program was also an excellent opportunity to showcase my work to others and see what other undergraduates were doing in the research community. In regards to my current position, my two biomedical imaging classes were particularly important to understanding camera systems as well as how to perform image processing for various applications. Other particularly useful courses included Intro to Python and Data Analytics.

As a Bioengineering student at Mason, I participated in several Bioengineering volunteering opportunities that sharpened and strengthened my technical skill set. Participating in senior design was an excellent opportunity to utilize knowledge gained over the years and collaborate with a team of other Bioengineering students and mentors. One of my favorite and most impactful experiences was my internship at the Inova Fairfax Hospital under Dr. Mahesh Shenai. I tested medical device instrumentation and designed neurosurgical activities for students participating in the BENG 499: “Bioengineering Applied Neurotechnologies” course for the Fall 2016 semester. During my internship, I developed a deep understanding of different imaging techniques to identify normal and abnormal anatomical structures, aided in analyzing CT/MRI scans, and was able to shadow surgeries such as deep brain stimulation. I also became the teaching assistant (TA) for this class during the Fall 2016 semester. This opportunity solidified my interest in pursuing a career in the medical device industry. Furthermore, I was involved in organizations such as the Biomedical Engineering Society and Pi Beta Phi that allowed me to succeed during my time at GMU.

Post GMU, I work as a regulatory affairs consultant for MCRA, LLC, a medical device firm. I draft and develop regulatory strategies and assessments for various device classes (I, II, and III), clinical evaluation reports, design dossiers, clinical protocols, and technical files with focus in orthopedic, spine, and cardiovascular medical devices for U.S. and international regulatory affairs. This Fall (2020), I will be attending Georgia Tech to pursue my M.S. in Biomedical Engineering - Biomedical Innovation and Development.

After graduating from Mason Bioengineering in 2016, I moved to the University of Michigan where I’m pursuing a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. My doctoral research focuses on elucidating the physiological mechanisms of action of clinical neuromodulation therapies for chronic pain, using a combination of computational modeling and objective clinical measures of neural activity. After my PhD, my goal is to pursue postdoctoral studies in neuroscience and eventually apply for tenure-track faculty positions. While at Mason doing undergraduate research in Associate Professor Nathalia Peixoto’s Neural Engineering Lab was the most transformative experience of my career, and is primarily responsible for my success as a PhD student so far.

My senior design team worked in the Biomedical Imaging Lab under Professor Siddhartha Sikdar and Assistant Professor Parag Chitnis, where we developed a noninvasive method of determining the functional state of ventriculoperitoneal shunts. Throughout that project, I collaborated with neurosurgeon Mahesh Shenai on a project that could one day positively impact patients solidified my desire to work on clinically-relevant research. I was also a writing tutor for English instructor Ken Thompson’s English 101 and 202 courses for the Engineering and Business Living Learning Community students, which showed me that I enjoy mentoring and learning with other students. The combination of these experiences has ultimately pushed me towards a career in academia as a translational neural engineer. Mason’s awesome Bioengineering faculty, and the outstanding environment it fosters for undergraduate research, fully prepared me for my journey towards becoming an independent scientist.