I am a PhD student in Health and Behavioral Sciences and I am interested in human behavioral responses to contagious illness, disease spread in relation to climate change, social and contagious networks, pathogen-human host interactions, and the gut microbiome. My current field site is a small-scale, indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon where I conducted research for my thesis on the behavioral immune system with my CSUF advisor, Dr. John Patton. I am also part of Dr. Patton's project on the gut microbiome in this same community. A future research goal of mine is to look at social determinants of disease spread as they relate to changing climate patterns in order to better predict and prevent future disease outbreaks as climate change worsens.