I studied biology (B.Sc. 2002) at Bridgewater College in Virginia with Stephen F. Baron, a talented microbiologist trained by James G. Ferry and Phillip B. Hylemon. This led to an opportunity to complete doctoral and postdoctoral work at VCU School of Medicine with Phil Hylemon. There, I focused on the molecular biology and enzymology of the bile acid inducible (bai) regulon in Clostridium scindens and Clostridium hylemonae. In addition, I identified a gene-cluster in C. scindens ATCC 35704 encoding the steroid-17,20-desmolase pathway involved in cortisol metabolism. In 2015, I joined the faculty of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where my focus is maintained on the sterolbiome. In the past several years, my lab has discovered and characterized genes encoding novel bile acid and corticosteroid metabolizing enzymes by both the gut and the urinary tract microbiota. My long-term goals focus on modulating the sterolbiome to improve human health and animal production.