I obtained my Bachelor of Science at Lees-McRae College with a double major in Psychology and Wildlife Biology and a minor in Criminal Justice and am currently pursuing a Master of Science in Integrative Biology at Oklahoma State University. Throughout my undergraduate career, I volunteered at the May Wildlife Rehabilitation Center where I cared for orphaned and injured animals. The majority of animals admitted to the center were various birds who had been victims of domestic animal attacks, vehicle accidents, window collisions, and gun shots. I realized that my work at the center, while valuable, was only treating the symptoms, not the underlying disease. This realization ignited a passion for avian conservation. I went on to work for the Suffolk County Parks in their effort to restore Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) breeding pairs and Least Tern (Sternula antillarum) colonies. I studied the impact of cacao forests on bird communities at the Bladen Nature Reserve in Belize. Additionally, I conducted my own study on supplemental feeding behavior in winter resident bird communities. My conservation focus shifted slightly to disease ecology from a combination of increased prevalence of avian species at the Center with severe illness and mechanisms of infection coursework. My desire to pursue research on disease and immunity in birds brought me to Oklahoma State University and the Grindstaff Lab, which specializes in early life influences, parental effects, and immunology. My current research project focuses on long-term influences of early immune challenge in birds on immunity, developmental trajectories, adult phenotype, and maternal antibody transmission. As a side project, I am working with local high school students with physical disabilities to study stridulation patterns of the horned passalus beetle (Odontotaenius disjunctus). It is my hope that this project will promote scientific advancement and research skills to an underrepresented group in STEM careers.