I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and then completed my undergraduate studies at the University of California - Irvine with a B.S. in Chemistry with honors. While there, I worked under Alan F. Heyduk doing small molecule inorganic synthesis and characterization with the goal of finding one that could be used as a catalyst for small molecule activation reactions. After graduation, I then worked for a year at NAMSA before coming to UCSB to pursue my Ph.D.