Dr. Parekh received her Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from the College of William and Mary where she engaged in undergraduate research in Psychology and Applied Science. She went on to join the Duke University Medical Center as a Research Technician working under Dr. Wolfgang Liedtke, studying mechanisms of pain and sensory processing using vertebrate and invertebrate models. She then enrolled in the Center for Neuroscience graduate training program at the University of Pittsburgh. For her doctoral thesis work with Dr. Colleen McClung, Dr. Parekh studied the regulation of mood and reward-related behaviors and synaptic plasticity within limbic structures as a result of core circadian gene disruptions. Her work was supported by a T32 training grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She subsequently joined the lab of Dr. Conor Liston at Weill Cornell Medicine as a postdoctoral fellow to continue exploring animal models with relevance to psychiatric conditions. There she received an F32 NRSA Fellowship and K99/R00 Pathway to Indepdendence award from the National Institute of Mental Health as well as internal funding from Weill Cornell. While in New York City, Dr. Parekh also served as Adjunct Assistant Professor at CUNY Hunter College, teaching Behavioral Neuroendocrinology in the Psychology department. Dr. Parekh currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at UT Dallas. Outside of work, she enjoys rock climbing, hiking, playing disc golf and sampling matcha lattes.