About

I am a postdoctoral researcher at Wayne State University in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, advised by Professor Michelle Oyen. I study pregnancy biomechanics, and am particularly interested in the mechanical role of the reproductive tissues and how their failure can lead to preterm birth. I am fueled by a passion to improve women’s healthcare, and love using my expertise in computational simulation to work towards patient-specific care models.

I am from Minnesota, and earned my undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. As an undergraduate, I conducted research under Dr. John Bischof in which I verified the thermal contrast amplification device, a novel method of improving disease detection from lateral flow assays. I spent my summers as an undergrad doing research as a part of University of Wisconsin – Stout’s Rehabilitative Robotics REU, interning at GE Power, and working at Vigilant Diagnostics. During my undergraduate years, I found my passion of engineering in medicine, and have continued to pursue its applications.

I received my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University under Professor Kristin Myers. My doctoral research focused on conducting clinical studies to quantify biomechanical changes in the uterus and cervix across pregnancy, the development of a patient-specific computational model of the uterus and cervix, and the in-silico study of differences in cervical loading in patients who did and did not deliver at term.