Education & Professional Biography
I grew up in Smithfield, VA and graduated from Isle of Wight Academy. After high school I moved to Richmond to attend Virginia Commonwealth University. While there I worked in Dr. Fang-Sheng Wu's lab, whose interests in biotechnology allowed me to combine my interests in plants and genetics. I earned a B.S. and M.S. in biology at VCU. After completing my M.S. I moved to Charlottesville to work as a lab technician for Dr. Michael Timko in the University of Virginia's department of Biology. The following year I entered the PhD program and continued to work in Mike's lab and explore chloroplast gene expression. I extended my interest in chloroplast gene expression during my post-doctoral training in Dr. David Stern's lab at The Boyce-Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell University. In 2003 I joined the faculty of Middle Tennessee State University's department of Biology and over the course of 11 years trained 1 PhD, 7 M.S., and numerous undergraduate students. In 2014 I joined The University of Virginia's College at Wise as the Buchanan Endowed Chair of Biology.
