I first realized my interest in languages in my German classes in secondary school. During my undergraduate studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, I became fascinated by how people understand and produce language, and I decided to pursue Linguistics and Psychology as my major.

I was fortunate to take classes taught by Lyn Frazier. Inspired by the work I learned about in class, I asked about research opportunities in the Clifton-Frazier Lab, run by Chuck Clifton and Lyn Frazier. They had an open position, and I began working on various lab projects, including my senior thesis.

After receiving my B.A. in 2007, I worked at Penn State as a Research Technologist in the Center for Language Science, Judy Kroll's Language and Cognition Laboratory, and Giuli Dussias' ISÍ (I see) Eye-tracking Laboratory. I helped the center faculty build their shared research lab space, and I helped out with other administrative duties. I conducted psycholinguistic studies on bilingual language processing, including some tricky data preparation. I was also the resident webmaster for the CLS.

In 2009 I became a graduate student in the Psychology Department at Penn State where I continued working with Judy Kroll and Giuli Dussias. I received my MS in Psychology in 2011. I then received my dual-title PhD in Psychology and Language Science from The Pennsylvania State University in 2015.

In 2015, I moved to Montréal to join McGill University as an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellow in the McGill Language & Multilingualism Laboratory, under the direction of Debra Titone, and in the Language Experience and the Brain Laboratory, under the direction of Denise Klein.