I am a PhD student in the Anthropology department at UC Davis with a concentration in Paleoanthropology and my interests lie in studying the evolutionary mechanisms that lead to a variety of functional morphological traits through human evolutionary history. My research focuses on Neanderthals but I am also interested in studying other archaic hominins as well as modern humans to tell a more complete story about our journey through time. 

The broad goal of my PhD research is to investigate the evolution of the pelvis by doing comparative analysis between Neanderthal, Modern human, and non-human primate specimen. Due to preservation bias amongst other factors, there is still a lot we do not know about this very important component of our evolution. I am currently using three-dimensional analysis software to make a virtual reconstruction as well as carry out geometric morphometric analyses on a Neanderthal pelvis and in the future, I hope to include other archaic hominins into my study.
  
When I am not poring my head over articles and texts, I enjoy being a TA and leading classes, participating in elementary and middle school outreach programs , as well as getting involved in a variety socially conscious organizations. I believe that studying paleoanthropology gives me a unique understanding of ourselves as individuals and as a world.