About Me

Hey ya'll!

My name is Andrea, my friends and colleagues call me Drea, and I use she/her/hers pronouns. I am a PhD Candidate in Brian Lazzaro’s lab in the Department of Entomology at Cornell University. I currently study the impact that diet, particularly high sugar diets, has on infection dynamics in the mighty fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. I am really interested in how diet induced alterations to metabolic pathways has on immunity ultimately impacting how well an organism can weather an infection. 

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I am the first person in my family to go to college, and as a Black Filipino woman, I have never in my experience had an instructor throughout my entire education who was either of my racial identities. That is why I am invested in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to empower and make space for people historically underrepresented in STEM.  I am a Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellow,  I Co-lead for the Diversity Preview Weekend, and President of Cornell's Black Graduate and Professional Student Association. If you want to learn more about my efforts in these causes or learn about my experience writing the Ford Predoctoral Fellowship check out my service page and Ford Advice Blog for more!

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When I am not making flies sick and challenging systemic oppression in STEM, I also garden, watch anime, read webcomics, and play video games.