Abbi joined the LEAPH lab for a rotation as a Ph.D. student in the Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology program at Virginia Tech in Fall 2025, co-advised by Dr. Jingqiu Liao and Dr. Boris Vinatzer in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences. In LEAPH, Abbi studies microbial ecology using metagenomics, mathematical modeling, and machine learning.

Abbi received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and statistics from Radford University before crossing the river to Virginia Tech. Throughout her time at Radford, she worked with Dr. Tara Pelletier to examine environmental and geographic influences of genetic diversity, an experience that led her to computational biology.

When she’s not in the lab working, she enjoys reading fantasy novels, playing board games with friends, doing anything crafty, spending time outside, and hanging out with her cat, Walter.