Hello!
I’m an undergraduate student at West Virginia University, majoring in data science with minors in molecular medicine and statistics. I’m involved in multiple health-related research projects, including investigating the Affordable Care Act’s impact on lung cancer, and genetically monitoring over 200 viruses and their variants in West Virginia patient samples from all around the state. I was named a 2025 Goldwater Scholar, and I have a first-author peer-reviewed paper published in Economic Affairs.
During graduate school, I hope to investigate the three-way interactions between the human microbiome, ultra-processed foods, and disease.
Outside of academics, I serve as the president of the WVU Climbing Club, and I enjoy cooking, reading, and having fun with robots!
Check out my CV here!
Papers
Impact of the Medicaid expansions on heart disease mortality (2025). Economic Affairs 45:1, 78-91
Code; Poster
- Goal: Did the Affordable Care Act prevent deaths?
- Medicaid covers low-income Americans, but was different state-by-state
- Affordable Care Act wanted to cover everyone under 138% of the federal poverty line (FPL) with Medicaid
- Supreme Court ruled that states can choose to expand Medicaid or not -> two comparison groups
- Looked at “preventable” heart disease deaths, meaning deaths designated by the CDC to be very deadly without treatment, but not deadly with treatment
- Found significant decrease in heart disease mortality
- A reduction in heart disease mortality in non-expansion states similar to expansion states would have prevented ~14,600 deaths over 10 years.