I received my PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of New Orleans working on the synthesis of novel histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors before making a leap of faith to jump into the world of herpesviruses. My postdoctoral work was on understanding the mechanisms contributing to ocular pathogenesis during HSV-1 infections following the initial infection and during reactivation of virus in vivo using both mouse and rabbit models of infection. I subsequently leveraged my chemistry background into understanding how latent HSV-1 genomes were epigenetically maintained in infected cells and while still a postdoc, I became one of the early pioneers defining the chromatin control of reactivating HSV-1 genomes in vivo, a project for which I was awarded a competitive NIH fellowship. I was recruited to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2019 as an Associate Professor, where my lab continues to grow the field of epigenetic regulation and three-dimensional chromatin architecture of latent HSV-1 genomes to determine the mechanisms by which these elements control latency establishment, maintenance, and reactivation using a mixture of molecular, genetic, and next-generation approaches. The goal of my lab is to use these mechanisms to design new therapeutic targets that deplete latent reservoirs of HSV-1 from sensory neurons. I love to travel and be outdoors. In my spare time I enjoy working in my vegetable gardens, cooking and taking care of my ever-growing family of rescue pets LeeRoy, Milo, Jazzy and Capri (and of course my partner Rob!).