I am a staff psychologist and military sexual trauma coordinator at the VA Boston Healthcare System. I also am an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine.

I received my B.S. in Psychology from Brown University. I completed my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. During that time, I completed a pre-doctoral NIDA F31 grant focused on the role of distress tolerance and other factors on the development of substance use among youth. I completed my pre-doctoral psychology internship at the Mississippi Consortium (the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the G. V. (Sonny) Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center) and my post doctoral fellowship at Stanford University/the VA Palo Alto Health Care System.

My research explores the effects of trauma across the lifespan, with a focus on negative outcomes predicted by trauma (e.g., risky sex, substance use, and internalizing disorders) and potential mediators and moderators of the post-trauma trajectory (e.g., low distress tolerance, genetics). I seek to apply this knowledge in developing novel treatments for veterans dually-diagnosed with PTSD and substance use disorders (SUDs). Specifically, I am interested in increasing the retention and engagement of difficult-to-treat populations. I hope to target common factors linking PTSD-SUD (e.g., low distress tolerance) by developing add-on treatment modules to help veterans who may struggle with existing interventions.