Lindsay was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, where the beautiful green backdrop inspired her to earn her B.S in plant biology at Oregon State University. During her studies, she became particularly interested in secondary metabolites and the microbial world. Lindsay became familiar with microbiology when studying the virulence genes of plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens in the lab of Prof. Jeff Chang at OSU. Upon graduating, Lindsay worked for Prof. Molly Megraw of OSU, investigating the differential transcription of secondary metabolites in tissues of A. thaliana. Now a Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech, Lindsay aims to study food as medicine by interrogating the difference in metabolism of bioactive plant molecules between people in relation to their microbiome and disease state. In her free time, Lindsay loves to dance, tend to her plants, and hike to look for native plants and mushrooms.