I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and attended Washington and Lee University for my undergraduate studies. I received my medical degree and completed my pediatric residency and neonatology fellowship at the University of Virginia. I subsequently joined the faculty at UVA and thus have been fortunate to call Virginia my home for life.

My father was an infectious disease specialist and a physician-scientist in microbiology. I grew up listening to him complain about writing grants and papers but also loving it and hearing him say how much he looked forward to going to work every day. I explored a career in biology but ultimately became inspired by the chance to treat patients and apply physiology and decided on a career in medicine. During medical school, I felt drawn to Pediatrics by the patients and mentors, keeping an open mind about a subspecialty career and research. During residency, I was energized by critical care and learning about physiology. I scheduled a research elective with Dr Karen Fairchild, who worked with me to complete a project that taught me the fundamentals of research and sparked my interest in Neonatology. She inspired me with her academic curiosity and continues to mentor and motivate my career goals today.

During fellowship, I became fascinated by the physiology of sepsis and using mathematical algorithms to find vital sign patterns that we cannot see easily on the bedside monitor. Caring for extremely premature infants with complex illness trajectories and frequent adverse events motivated me to steer my research toward translating these patterns into early warning systems using predictive analytics. I have been fortunate to team up with mentors and researchers with diverse backgrounds, including Randall Moorman, MD, and Doug Lake, PhD, who have enabled me to learn about and perform studies using big data analytics and predictive models.

As highlighted in this issue of Pediatric Research, we developed and evaluated predictive models in multicenter cohorts to characterize cardiorespiratory signatures of illness due to late-onset sepsis in premature infants. Sepsis causes significant morbidity and mortality, so early warning of cardiorespiratory deterioration due to sepsis could save lives and improve outcomes for survivors. My advice to early career investigators: find what motivates you and dig in. For me, it is working with a great team on science that can change the way the field thinks and cares for the patients that I get to take care of.