I was born in Queens, New York and raised on Long Island.  In 1998, I earned my bachelor's degree from New York University and in 2006, my Doctorate Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.  On May 1, 2007 I decided to come home  and accepted a postdoctoral position at Weill Cornell Medical College/New York Presbyterian Hospital where my current research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in innate immunity.
 
Despite having grown up in New York, surrounded by Spanish music, I never found the time to take my first dance lesson until I was  completing my dissertation in California.  There, I learned to dance "on 1," then "on 2" before joining my first dance troupe.  After moving back to New York, I started classes with Piel Canela, and with the encouragement of Joe, auditioned and joined the student dance team during the summer of 2008.