Monica was born in Mexico City, Mexico. She was brought to the United States at a young age where she grew up in Yuba City, California. She attended Yuba College, where she obtained three associates one in Chemistry, Biology and Natural Science. Afterwards, she transferred to CSU, Chico where she received her B.S in Cellular Molecular Biology. While at Chico State she worked under the mentorship of Dr. Carolynn Chin Arpin, a medicinal chemist, where she worked on two projects, “Synthesis and Study of Naphthalene Drug Scaffold” and “Coupling a Chalcone with a Fluorescent Tag”. During her last year at Chico State she worked under the mentorship of Dr. David B Ball, a synthetic chemist, on “Synthesis of Chiral Beta Amino Acids”. From these experiences she decided to pursue a Ph.D in Synthetic Chemistry.

Fun Facts

She likes to listen to music, spend time outside, and watch tv shows while baking. She also has a lovely tortie cat named Nala who loves to play. If you are latinx or simply interested in pursing a career in Chemistry feel free to email me. I would love to chat and help out.