ABOUT

I am currently a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Medicine in the School of Medicine at Emory University. I conduct research in the Neurokinesiology Lab, with broad research topics addressing optimal design and delivery of music and dance-based treatment paradigms to enhance motor-cognitive capacity and gait modulation repertoire in individuals with neurodegenerative conditions. 

l received my Ph.D. in Kinesiology, with a concentration in Biomechanics, from the Pennsylvania State University in 2022, advised by Jonathan B. Dingwell, Ph.D..

I received my B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, with a concentration in Biomechanics, from the University of Rochester in 2016. I also graduated with a minor in Electrical Engineering (Integrated Circuits). 

I am interested in studying how humans engage with the world around them and the wearable and therapeutic tools that can enhance movement experiences. I am curious about the locomotor control schemes humans enact to successfully navigate the complexities of their environments, as well as how disease, injury, lifestyle, and aging alter these schemes. I am also eager to develop training protocols and augmentative devices to enhance locomotor function and movement experiences across populations.

My current research seeks to understand the locomotor control strategies that enable humans to maintain stable, adaptive walking in complex, dynamic walking environments. In particular, I have focused on how typical aging affects how humans regulate stepping movements amidst predictable and unpredictable balance challenges. I've used principles of optimality and kinematic redundancy to identify step-to-step coordination strategies, and characterize how readily and successfully these strategies are adjusted. This research has implications for earlier identification and targeted treatment of balance deficits in older adult populations.