I am a Latin American scientist, born in Chile and raised in Ecuador. As a child, I always imagined I would become a veterinarian, but as I was pursuing that career in college I discovered infectious disease ecology. My passion for numbers and the quantitative aspect of nature drew me towards a PhD in Zoology at the University of Florida working with Jose Miguel Ponciano and Bette Loiselle. During my dissertation I focused on my statistics training and worked to understand variation between individuals and how it affects our understanding of population and ecosystem level patterns. I am a fan of statistics of extremes, R is my happy language, and I truly enjoy teaching and empowering others to use quantitative tools in their work. I am also a mom of three kiddos and an awesome dog. You can find me on GitHub, and LinkedIn. A list of my publications is on GoogleScholar.
What is your question?
What sparks your curiosity? What keeps you up at night? What is your question? Like many academics, I have a hard time separating my identity from my work and career, so for me, research is not just a profession—it is a reflection of who I am and how I engage with the world. I am driven by a deep curiosity about the intersection of animal, human, and environmental health and a commitment to using science to address complex, real-world challenges. My journey started in the field, and these experiences shaped how I think about these interactions and why I want to contribute to understanding them.
Collecting acid mine drainage from gold mining activity.
One of my first experiences as an undergraduate researcher. I don't know if this was safe, but... it was fun?
I had a brief period of interest in chemical engineering, hoping I could have a positive impact within all extractivist industries. I think I quickly realized that was not my thing.
However, it was really exciting to learn about sulfate-reducing bacteria and their potential role to remediate. This just led me closer to microbiology.
As a side note, traveling all over Ecuador visiting gold mines was fundamental to understand the impacts of extractive industries on local communities, and how complex these social interactions really are.
Ecuador and Galápagos
Growing up in Ecuador, I had the immense privilege of experiencing a wide range of ecosystems only a short distance from each other and observing parallels.
Being able to witness all this biodiversity, and also the impacts of anthropogenic activities in all these ecosystems truly shaped my approach to science.
People play a huge role in everything, and we can't get very far, unless we engage with them. We can't do science in a vacuum. I learned this while engaging with local communities during spay neuter campaigns, or working with cattle and mass deworming and talking to locals, or even just when doing bird surveys.
Witnessing the connections between people, animals, and the environment fortified my interests in One Health.
I really wished I had a picture of me in the lab.
Early on during my undergrad I was fortunate to join various research labs and learn the ins and outs of different types of lab work. I experienced a wide range of smells coming from bioreactors, learned the importance of adequate training and using the fume hoods (learned the hard way), and also loved the microbiology lab.
I have been disconnected from lab work for a few years now, but I miss it. I think it is a good reminder that all data comes from hard work, and as a quantitative person, sometimes it is easy to lose perspective.
I am excited for new opportunities to incorporate lab work into my research again. Got any tips?