Experience

• 

  Pebble Labs Inc.

  • United States
  • Biotechnology Research
  • 1 - 100 Employee

  • Chief of Staff

    • Jan 2023 - Present

  • Interim Agriculture Program Lead

    • Mar 2023 - Jul 2023

• 

  Pebble Labs Inc.

  • United States
  • Biotechnology Research
  • 1 - 100 Employee

  • Aquaculture Program Lead

    • Jun 2022 - Jan 2023

  • Senior Research Scientist

    • Sep 2021 - Jun 2022

  • Research Scientist

    • Mar 2020 - Sep 2021

  • Post Doctoral Research Associate

    • Jan 2019 - Mar 2020

• 

  Anne Arundel Community College

  • Arnold, Maryland

  • Adjunct Professor

    • Sep 2016 - Dec 2016
    • Arnold, Maryland

    Adjunct Professor of Fundamentals of Horticulture. Redesigned the syllabus for both the lecture and greenhouse sections of the course. Taught lectures and greenhouse sections of the course.

• 

  Prairie State College

  • Greater Chicago Area

  • Adjunct Professor

    • Aug 2013 - May 2016
    • Greater Chicago Area

    Adjunct Professor for Cellular & Molecular Biology, General Biology and Organismal Biology, teaching both the lecture and laboratory sections of these courses.

• 

  Purdue University

  • West Lafayette

  • Laboratory Technician

    • Aug 2012 - May 2013
    • West Lafayette

    Investigated genetic pathways involved in Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation using mutated strains of Agrobacterium as well as plants with mutations in genes implicated in plant-bacteria interactions.

• 

  Purdue University

  • Laboratory Associate

    • Feb 2012 - May 2012

    Used GC/MS to profile cuticle constituents of guayule, switchgrass and cotton.

  • Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

    • Oct 2010 - Jan 2012

    Investigated a novel Arabidopsis mutant which exhibits enhanced tolerance to necrotrophic fungi, elucidated mechanisms of gene control leading to enhanced tolerance, highlighted steps in signal transduction pathways where gene of interest is involved including its mode of action. Used techniques such as EMSA and ChIP assays.

• 

  Purdue University

  • Lafayette, Indiana Area

  • Research Assistant/ Graduate Student

    • Jan 2005 - Aug 2010
    • Lafayette, Indiana Area

    • Successfully optimized an existing cowpea transformation protocol by identifying and improving key steps therein leading to a 2.5% increase in transformation efficiency. • Successfully transformed cowpea with the sunflower seed albumin (ssa) gene, augmented most amino acids by 3-5% in transgenic plants, valine showed the highest increase of 42% over the control.• Explored the cuticle’s involvement in pepper fruit water loss using fruit from the near-isogenic advanced backcross generation arising from hybridization of parents differing for both fruit water loss and fruit cuticle lipids, discovered that an increase in aliphatics corresponds to a reduction in water loss, whereas an increase in triterpenoids and sterols corresponds to an increase in water loss in pepper fruit, my results shed new light on the role of cuticle chemical constituents in fruit water loss, on the inheritance of fruit cuticle traits, and lay the groundwork for ongoing studies to identify specific quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that can be used for the genetic improvement of fruit shelf-life in pepper.

• 

  Scientific and Industrial Research Center

  • Harare, Zimbabwe

  • Staff Development Fellow

    • Jan 2002 - Oct 2004
    • Harare, Zimbabwe

    • Transformed and regenerated tomato using the Agrobacterium method. • Genotyped an advanced back-cross population in corn to identify individual plants with QTLs for insect resistance and drought tolerance as part of a marker-assisted breeding project.