Maddi grew up just down the road in the town of Solon, IA. She is currently a fourth-year Immunology PhD candidate under the mentorship of Dr. Ali Jabbari. Prior to her graduate studies she attended Iowa State University and achieved a B.S. in Biology, which is where her spark for research first started. Her research interests moved from plants to people as she joined the Chen lab at the University of Iowa, working as a research intern. It was her involvement there, on an immune cell-focused project, which sparked her current interests in immunology. In her current lab now, her dissertation research focuses on understanding the role of regulatory T cells during the autoimmune disease Alopecia Areata (AA) and how they may be leveraged as a therapeutic tool. Maddi is hoping to generate pre-clinical data that could support the pursuit and generation of novel therapeutic options for patients with AA. Outside of the lab Maddi enjoys playing pickleball, gaming on her Nintendo switch and hanging out with friends and family.