Paulina earned her undergraduate degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She then joined the post-baccalaureate research program at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston as a PREP Scholar with support of a Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA to study immune response to infection by the tropical bacteria Orientia tsutsugamushi. In the Wenzel lab, Paulina will be studying the role of force during hematopoietic stem cell specification in the embryo.