I was born in San José, Costa Rica where I obtained a B.S. and M.Sc. in Biology, focusing on host choice and handling behavior in parasitoid wasps. I then relocated to the US to complete my doctoral studies on the evolution of animal societies and social behavior at the University of Miami. For my doctoral research, I explored grouping behavior and reproduction, social interactions, and brain plasticity in primitively eusocial wasps native to South Florida. After completing my PhD, I took a position as a Lecturer in the Department of Biology at UM, then a Research Associate position at the Sheehan Lab at Cornell University. Most recently, I started a position at the University of Rochester as a Research Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Instruction. My team of students continue to work on local and international projects exploring social evolution in insects.

Nancy is an evolutionary biologist interested in the genomic basis of contemporary evolution in natural populations. Her research integrates genomics and long-term demographic studies with pedigree data to characterize the evolutionary processes shaping patterns of variation across the genome through space and time. Nancy earned her Ph.D. with Andy Clark and John Fitzpatrick at Cornell University and then did a postdoc with Graham Coop at UC Davis before moving to Rochester in 2018. She is committed to promoting justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in STEM. In her free time, Nancy enjoys running, hiking, cooking, and playing board games.

In natural populations of animals and plants, genetic differences among individuals give rise to substantial variation in ability to survive and reproduce, or fitness. This is puzzling, because natural selection would be expected to eliminate fitness-reducing alleles. I investigate the factors maintaining genetic variation for fitness in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. I am also using theory to explore the evolutionary consequences of genetic variation for fitness, especially in the context of sexual selection and mate choice.