I was born and raised in Quito, Ecuador. I obtained my bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences (with a focus on Plant Taxonomy) in 2009 from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador under the direction of
Katya Romoleroux. Until 2011, I was a research and curatorial assistant at the
QCA herbarium. In the spring of 2012, I started my Ph.D. in Biology (Plant Systematics and Evolution) at the University of Idaho under the supervision of
Dave Tank. From the fall of 2017 to the spring of 2021, I was a postdoctoral associate at the University of Minnesota at the
Ya Yang's lab, focusing on Plant Evolution.
In July
of 2021, I joined
the group of Gudrun Kadereit at LMU Munich
as a postdoctoral researcher
.