Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Carmen obtained her Animal Science bachelors degree at the University of Maryland, College Park. Afterwards she worked at an animal care contract company at the National Institutes of Health where she gained a deep appreciation for working with animals used in research. She obtained her veterinary degree at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in the Public/Corporate track. Right afterwards she entered the combined Comparative Medicine Residency/PhD program at CSU, where she joined the Sue VandeWoude Retrovirus Group to work with Feline Foamy Virus. Her interests include laboratory animal medicine, infectious disease, virology, and pathology. On her spare time she can be found cycling, racing triathlons, doing yoga, going to music shows, and visiting places with beaches as much as possible.
