I received my PhD in Integrated Biomedical Science, concentration in cancer biology, from Ohio State University and my MS in Biomedical & Health Informatics from University of Washington. During my PhD, I focused on mouse genetics and genomics from the perspective of a bench scientist; my dissertation work involved investigating mutation types and numbers in preneoplastic cells and tissues from Fhit knockout mice. I completed a postdoctoral fellowship and MS degree simultaneously at the University of Washington where I investigated differential gene expression in the parasite Leishmania donovani.