I've had a long, winding journey to the US and to my research area.

 

I was born and raised in the UK. I attended Durham University, majoring in Psychology. My Undergraduate Thesis explored sex differences in aggression with Professor Anne Campbell.

 

After graduation, I completed a Masters in Reading, Language and Cognition at the University of York. My Masters research examined the contribution of working memory to narrative recall in school-aged children with Professor Susan Gathercole. 

​

Under the mentorship of Professor Jonathan Green at the University of Manchester, I completed my PhD within the Preschool Autism Communication Trial (PACT). My Doctoral thesis focused on play behaviors in ASD and the trajectories of restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs). 

​

In 2012 I was awarded an International Research Scholarship that allowed me to pursue Postdoctoral training with Professor Connie Kasari at UCLA's Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART). Instead of moving back to the rainy UK, I remained at UCLA until 2015 refining my research agenda to focus on RRBs and sex differences in ASD. 

​

In 2015 I was tempted East and continued my training with Dr. Brian Boyd at UNC-Chapel Hill. Here I have combined my extensive behavioral research experience with training in physiological and electrophysiological research methods to understand phenotypic differences in ASD, with a specific focus on females. 

​

In 2018, I was selected as a UNC Translational Research (KL2) Scholar. As part of this Career Development Award, I will be training with Drs. Ayse Belger and Kevin Pelphrey on electrophysiological markers of social motivation in females with ASD. Combining electrophysiological, behavioral and treatment data, I will identify subgroups of individuals with ASD. I will use these subgroups to further understand the role of biological sex and chronological age on stratification. 

​

Outside research, I spend most my spare time with my own longitudinal research project (my 2 year old daughter!) and husband (Dan, an architect). My hobbies include crafting, reading (non-academic books!) and the gym. 

​

My long-term career objective is to conduct translational research that will inform the development of effective, appropriate and personalized interventions for ASD females.

​

​