Originally from West Chester, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia, I’m a huge Philly sports fan, so being competitive and passionate has kind of always been part of who I am (GO BIRDS!). I attended Salisbury University for my undergraduate education, where I played lacrosse and developed a strong appreciation for discipline, teamwork, and the role of exercise in overall health and performance. During my time there, I found my passion for exercise science, which eventually led me to get involved in undergraduate research. That experience was a major turning point for me and showed me how meaningful research can be in understanding human physiology and improving health outcomes.

A lot of my interest in cardiometabolic health is rooted in personal experience. As a previously obese adolescent, I became interested early on in how obesity affects cardiovascular and metabolic health and how exercise and nutrition can serve as both preventative and therapeutic tools. That interest became even more meaningful over time, shaped not only by my own experiences but also by losing my mother to heart disease. Together, those experiences gave me a lasting interest in the mechanisms underlying cardiometabolic dysfunction and the practical ways lifestyle interventions can improve long-term health.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My research interests are centered around cardiovascular and exercise physiology and human bioenergetics. My work broadly seeks to elucidate mechanisms of cardio- and neurovascular dysfunction across the aging continuum and to develop targeted translational interventions to preserve cardiometabolic health.

Specifically, my research focuses on:

• Elucidating physiological mechanisms underlying declines in cardio- and neurovascular health associated with healthy aging and conditions characterized by accelerated biological aging, including obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.
• Determining practical, scalable lifestyle interventions including pharmacological and non-pharmacological (i.e. exercise, diet, supplementation) approaches to improve cardiometabolic health in at-risk and clinical populations.
• Defining the cardio- and neurovascular protective effects of higher cardiorespiratory fitness in adults with early stage cardiometabolic disease, with the goal of identifying mechanisms through which fitness mitigates vascular and autonomic dysfunction. 

My work integrates mechanistic and clinically translational approaches to identify novel contributors to metabolic inflexibility, vascular and autonomic dysfunction and arterial stiffness with the goal of implementing evidence-based strategies to attenuate disease progression and reduce future cardiovascular disease risk. See attached CV. 

FUN FACT

Ho trascorso quattro anni a studiare l'italiano come seconda lingua. (I spent four years studying Italian as a second language).

PERSONAL INTERESTS

• Avid cyclist and golfer
• Bourbon aficionado
• Cooking and trying new cuisines