She grew up in New Zealand, where she received Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Zoology from the University of Otago in Dunedin. After travelling and working in Asia, she moved to Western University, Canada, for her PhD in the laboratory of Brent Sinclair, before joining Dan Hahn at the University of Florida as a postdoctoral research fellow. In 2010 she received the Scholander Award from the American Physiological Society...