Ever since I can remember I've been fascinated by the brain. Following college, I became enamored by neuroscience and decided to pursue it as a career. I attended graduate school at Yale University studying the neurobiology of learning and memory. Upon graduation I did two post-doctoral fellowships, at Indiana University and the University of Kansas. After being hired at Ohio State I began to focus on the neurotoxic effects of alcohol on brain development and function, with an emphasis on impaired learning and memory. Over the last four years we have published a number of studies documenting how alcohol alters neurotransmission and synaptic plasticity, a neurophysiological change that is thought to underlie learning. The current experiment continues these studies, shifting focus to alcohol-induced neuroinflammation. Throughout, our goal has been to better understand the mechanisms by which alcohol disrupts neurodevelopment, and potential pharmacological remedies to ameliorate alcohol's neurotoxic effects.