ABOUT ME

Virologist, Author, and Speaker

Danielle is currently a PhD candidate in The Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her thesis work aims to characterize the evolution of HIV tropism in the central nervous system. She has completed her B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from San Diego State University (2018). Shortly after graduation, she moved to Seattle, WA where she spent two years as an NIH PREP Scholar at The University of Washington where she studied adenovirus entry and HIV evolution in primates.

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Danielle is the founder of Infinite GRADitude, an organization committed to equipping PhD students with tools to successfully prioritize their well-being in the academic environment. Her lived experience with managing her mental health in an academic setting inspired a mindset shift toward being proactive about her wellness journey as a PhD student. In 2022, she wrote and published a self-help mindfulness journal with evidenced-based strategies to reduce stress specifically for doctoral students, The Mindful PhD Journal.

She is working closely with clinical professionals and STEM education researchers to develop evidence-based mindfulness workshops as interventions to increase PhD student well-being, and has published workshop materials in The Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education. The workshops explore evidence-based mindfulness practices within the context of a research setting to 1) normalize the challenges students navigate as trainees 2) give students a safe environment to learn, implement, and discuss practical strategies with peers.

Danielle is committed to building a more inclusive scientific ecosystem through empirically based modalities in mindfulness and compassion.