Valeria is a 4th-year Ph.D. Candidate from the Integrative and Translational Physiology (ITP) Research Concentration at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from The University of Puerto Rico at Cayey. During her time at UPR Cayey, she participated in different student organizations including SACNAS, where she served as both president (2017-2018) and treasurer (2018-2019). In addition, Valeria also received multiple awards/fellowships during her undergraduate studies, including the Puerto Rico IDeA Network Biomedical Research Excellence (PRINBRE) Scholarship (2016-2017), Puerto Rico Louis Stokes Alliance For Minority Participation (PR-LSAMP) Scholarship (2017-2018) and Ford STEM UPR Alumni Association Scholarship (2018). At UIC, Valeria works under the mentorship of Dr. Pingwen Xu. During her graduate studies, she has received three fellowships, including Illinois-LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) Fellowship (2019-2021), T32 Alcohol Research Training Fellowship (2021-2022), and American Heart Association (AHA) Predoctoral Fellowship (2022-2024). When she is not doing lab work, Valeria enjoys exploring the beautiful City of Chicago and finding new places to eat.