I am an independent academic scientist and tenure-track assistant professor at CUNY City Tech. My PhD is from NYU School of Medicine and my postdoc from Weill Cornell Medicine/ HSS. My research program focuses on understanding the mechanisms that normally control B-cell activation and autoantibodies in response to infection and how these processes are disrupted in complex human infections such as malaria and other tropical infections. I work mostly with human and veterinary samples from Colombia and Costa Rica and other collaborators around the world. I am also a passionate bilingual individual interested in serving and mentoring.