Currently, my line of work involves alcohol-related neurodevelopmental tau phosphorylation in rats as a novel model of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). Our lab incorporates wet bench and behavioral techniques to make associations between executive dysfunction and biochemical correlates in the context of perinatal alcohol exposure. Our recently-developed executive function task reveals robust cognitive impairments in juvenile rats prenatally exposed to alcohol, which we suspect to be driven by abnormally sustained tau phosphorylation in the hippocampus. We anticipate neuroinflammation and insulin insensitivity to have similar roles in propagating tau phosphorylation in our neurodevelopmental FASDs model that are also involved in neurodegenerative tauopathies. Elucidating these associations is our primary objective.

2020 M.S. Experimental Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Kentucky

2020 Graduate Certificate in Preparing Future Faculty, Universtiy of Kentucky

2017 B.S. Psychology, Behavioral Neuroscience, East Tennessee State University