Makayla was is a Masters student in the Microbiology department at OSU. She is originally from Farmdale, Ohio, a small town North of Youngstown, Ohio. She received her BS in Microbiology with a minor in Creative Writing at Bowling Green State University in 2020, where she worked in the Bullerjahn lab to elucidate the pathogens that impact the cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms of Lake Erie and Sandusky Bay.