I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto where I studied global health and immunology. While in Toronto, I also worked for the Health Canada Drug Analysis Service (DAS) and with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), sparking my interest in public health research. Afterwards, I spent a summer in Shenzhen, China as a research assistant in a microbiology lab. This helped me realize my strengths and interests lay more in computational and data-driven work than in the wet lab. Encouraged by my supervisor, I explored doctoral opportunities in Hong Kong and ultimately joined the University of Hong Kong (HKU) for my PhD. In between, I moved back to Vancouver for a year, where I conducted cost-benefit analyses for a local orthodontics clinic.