Company Info for buckinstitute.org | IcebreakerMembers
Senior Director of Communications for the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, CA.
Novato’s Buck Institute is the largest independent scientific institute in the Bay Area. The Buck aims to end the threat of age-related diseases for this and future generations by bringing together the most capable and passionate scientists from a broad range of disciplines to identify and impede the ways in which we age. Its goal is to increase human healthspan, or the healthy years of life. Globally recognized as the pioneer and leader in efforts to target aging, the number one risk factor for serious diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, macular degeneration, heart disease, and diabetes, the Buck wants to help people live better longer.
For more information and to visit the Buck: https://www.buckinstitute.org/
I have a depth of experience in health care communications. As an award-winning multimedia producer my clients included the California Health Care Foundation, the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology and the Advisory Board Company as well as Kaiser Permanente, McKesson, the American Medical Informatics Association and the Health Information Management Systems Society. Highly experienced PhD-level Molecular and Cellular Biologist with 20 years of expertise across
industry, pre-, and post-doctoral roles. Proven track record in:
• Preclinical drug discovery: assay design and development (SPR, biochemical, and cell-based assays
for small molecule drug discovery and preclinical studies)
• Areas of Research: drug discovery for age-related diseases, cellular
senescence, ubiquitination, DUB, viral immunology (HIV latency regulation), DNA replication, cell
cycle regulation, transcriptional regulation.
Exceptional communicator and collaborator, with leadership experience in managing research associates,
driving interdisciplinary academic and industry partnerships, and distilling complex research findings to
enable decision-making and actionable next steps. Authored 8 peer-reviewed publications and 2
comprehensive reviews in leading scientific journals. 
Lead DevOps and Site Reliability Engineer with expertise in implementing DevOps and GitOps best practices and building secure, resilient, and highly available systems on GCP. Skilled in architecting multi-environment, multi-cluster GKE platforms, designing VPC security and peering, automating CI/CD pipelines, and strengthening observability for large-scale distributed systems. Proven track record of reducing costs and improving reliability across cloud infrastructure.
Key skills: ArgoCD, Atlantis, Cassandra, CI/CD, Cloud Run, Cloudflare, DataDog, Docker, Docker Compose, ELK Stack, Elastic Cloud, ElasticSearch, Flask, GCP, GitHub Actions, GitLab, Grafana, Helm, Istio, Java, Kafka, Kubernetes, Linux, MongoDB, NATS, Prometheus, Python, Redis, Terraform Background: A biogerontologist trained to find the answers to the most relevant and challenging questions in the biology of aging. My PhD work was the first to focus on investigating and understanding age, sex, and diet-dependent changes to ketone body metabolism under normal aging using longevity interventions, such as fasting, ketogenic diet (KD) and the ketone ester (Metabolic Switch sold by Juvenescence) in a wild-type (C57BL6N) mouse model. I used proteomics and lipidomics appraoches to better understand the phenotypic changes in ketone body metabolism. I possess a profound knowledge of ketone bodies, the post-translational modification, lysine beta-hydroxybutyrylation, and liver metabolism. I consistently strive to better understand the potential roles of endogenous metabolites like ketone bodies in reprogramming the metabolic landscape in aging.
Current role: I joined visionary leader Dylan V. Livingston on a mission to advocate for policies that bridge the gaps in longevity science. As Vice President of Communications and Partnerships at A4LI, I work to connect mission-aligned companies, organizations, investors, and academics with A4LI’s efforts, fostering collaborations that advance the field of aging research and longevity-focused policy.
I thrive in collaborative team environments, but I am equally adept at working autonomously and achieving optimal results. I am passionate about mentoring aspiring scientists, forging valuable connections through networking, and fostering collaborations that push the boundaries of scientific discovery. Science communication is a passion of mine, and I take pleasure in translating complex ideas into accessible and engaging narratives.
Always eager to grow and contribute, I am continuously seeking opportunities to apply my expertise and creative thinking.
Let's connect and explore how our shared interests can lead to exciting possibilities!
I am also passionate about environmental gerontology and aging in place initiatives. On my free time, I like to volunteer for Rebuilding Together. 
