Bio
I was born downtown Brooklyn, New York to my Trinidadian mother and Jamaican father. Throughout my life, however, I was raised as an only-child by my mother and great-uncle, who is great in more ways than one. I attended P.S.11, my neighborhood's public elementary school from kindergarten through fifth grade, when my teacher recommended that I apply to De La Salle Academy, a middle school in Manhattan for "gifted" children. I was thankfully admitted to De La Salle for sixth grade, where I was challenged and nurtured academically, socioemotionally as well as spiritually. I must say that attending De La Salle was a major milestone in my life--both developmentally as I transitioned through adolescence, and in terms of the opportunities I would be afforded.
In middle school, I was selected for the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) program at Temple University, where I was exposed to college-level science and statistics during the summer months. I conducted HIV research at Drexel University for two summers and Multiple Sclerosis research at the National Institutes of Health for one. Although I am no longer pursuing an M.D./ Ph.D., the biomedical training I received as a young, curious trainee has been invaluable. I have developed research skills and the mentality that I can learn, seek, discover, and create, and that I can use knowledge to make important contributions to society.
I was privileged to attend a prestigious all-girls, predominantly White, independent high school on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan--Marymount School. There, I continued to develop academically and spiritually. I learned about the significance of social justice and (in)equality and that it is not okay to be a silent bystander. I have an obligation to contribute to the good of society. Being a Marymount student helped me recognize that I had a special role to play in ameliorating disparities--as a woman, a Black person, a first-generation American, a person of faith, and a scholar.
Selecting a college proved to be a pivotal moment in my academic journey. For some time, I was convinced that Haverford College was the place for me. The MARC program director had cautioned against attending "slaughter-house" universities like Ivy League institutions, where we would be "weeded out" of the sciences. My mother, however, demanded that I at least apply to one Ivy university. When I explored the College of Human Ecology at Cornell, I realized that my interests aligned with the Human Development program. Although I was admitted to Haverford, I chose to attend Cornell, where I could thrive in a small college within a large land-grant research university.
I am forever grateful that my mother pushed me to pursue Cornell. Although I abandoned my pre-medical pursuits, I realized my interests in the social sciences, mixed methods, and evaluation during my undergraduate studies. I am deeply grateful for the rigorous and holistic educational experiences which I have been afforded. I am indebted to my mother, my great-uncle, De La Salle, the MARC program, and Marymount, for the roles they played in nurturing my early inclinations for knowledge-seeking, building, and sharing. While I cannot begin to name each person who has supported me along this journey, I must acknowledge my former mentors at the Cornell Office for Research on Evaluation, those who mentored me at the University of Delaware, as well as my current advisor/dissertation chair, Tom Archibald, and my other dissertation committee members (Kim Niewolny, Kwame Harrison, and Rosemary Blieszner). As the African proverb suggests, it takes a village...
In middle school, I was selected for the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) program at Temple University, where I was exposed to college-level science and statistics during the summer months. I conducted HIV research at Drexel University for two summers and Multiple Sclerosis research at the National Institutes of Health for one. Although I am no longer pursuing an M.D./ Ph.D., the biomedical training I received as a young, curious trainee has been invaluable. I have developed research skills and the mentality that I can learn, seek, discover, and create, and that I can use knowledge to make important contributions to society.
I was privileged to attend a prestigious all-girls, predominantly White, independent high school on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan--Marymount School. There, I continued to develop academically and spiritually. I learned about the significance of social justice and (in)equality and that it is not okay to be a silent bystander. I have an obligation to contribute to the good of society. Being a Marymount student helped me recognize that I had a special role to play in ameliorating disparities--as a woman, a Black person, a first-generation American, a person of faith, and a scholar.
Selecting a college proved to be a pivotal moment in my academic journey. For some time, I was convinced that Haverford College was the place for me. The MARC program director had cautioned against attending "slaughter-house" universities like Ivy League institutions, where we would be "weeded out" of the sciences. My mother, however, demanded that I at least apply to one Ivy university. When I explored the College of Human Ecology at Cornell, I realized that my interests aligned with the Human Development program. Although I was admitted to Haverford, I chose to attend Cornell, where I could thrive in a small college within a large land-grant research university.
I am forever grateful that my mother pushed me to pursue Cornell. Although I abandoned my pre-medical pursuits, I realized my interests in the social sciences, mixed methods, and evaluation during my undergraduate studies. I am deeply grateful for the rigorous and holistic educational experiences which I have been afforded. I am indebted to my mother, my great-uncle, De La Salle, the MARC program, and Marymount, for the roles they played in nurturing my early inclinations for knowledge-seeking, building, and sharing. While I cannot begin to name each person who has supported me along this journey, I must acknowledge my former mentors at the Cornell Office for Research on Evaluation, those who mentored me at the University of Delaware, as well as my current advisor/dissertation chair, Tom Archibald, and my other dissertation committee members (Kim Niewolny, Kwame Harrison, and Rosemary Blieszner). As the African proverb suggests, it takes a village...