I am from San Jose, California. I studied Biochemistry as an undergraduate at Harvard University (Class of '93). I was a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Suzanne Pfeffer and I earned a PhD in Biochemistry from Stanford University in 1999. I then moved into the field of developmental neurobiology and undertook postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley in the labs of Drs. Tito Serafini and John Ngai as well as a collaborative project with Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, then at UCSF. I was appointed Assistant Professor at UC Davis Department of Pharmacology in 2003. In 2010, I was promoted with tenure to Associated Professor at UC Davis. My lab studies molecular mechanisms of nervous system development with a focus on neural proliferation and synapse maturation. Since 2006, I have served as a core faculty member for the Neurobiology summer course at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA. I enjoy swimming, yoga, running, biking, hiking, and cooking.