I am originally from California, where I did my undergraduate and graduate studies. As an undergraduate I studied economics and math at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I then worked at the Board of governors of the Federal Reserve System as a research assistant in a Finance group for nearly two years. After that I did my PhD at the University of California, San Diego. My dissertation was in cognitive/behavioral economics, and more specifically on decision making under cognitive load. In addition to my economics courses, I took others in cognitive science, psychology, and mathematics.