I was born and raised in Albany, GA. I attended Albany State University as a Velma F. Grant Honors Scholar, majored in mathematics, and graduated in 2011. During my undergraduate experience, I gained insights about research and graduate school by participating in summer research internships.  I realized that I receive joy from helping others, and my capacity to teach and tutor was expanded when I became a First and Second Year Experience peer tutor. Prof. Zephyrinus Okonkwo and was my undergraduate advisor and mentor along with Prof. M. H. Talukder who introduced me to statistics.

Entering graduate school was a humbling experience and I was ecstatic to join the University of Illinois’ Summer Pre-Doctoral Institute prior to beginning the Ph.D. program in statistics.  That summer I became acclimated with the rich and rigorous environment at UIUC.

In 2012, I was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. In that same year, I joined the Black Graduate Student Association at UIUC and served as the treasurer for two consecutive years.

After a few years of coursework and research under the advisement of Prof. Annie Qu, I defended my dissertation in July of 2017 and graduated in August of 2017. After graduation, I joined the faculty of the Department of Statistics as a Visiting Assistant Professor. In the fall of 2018, I began as Teaching Assistant Professor in the department. Additionally, I serve as one of the Academic Advisors for the department’s Master’s Program.