Gaby hails from the U.S.-Mexico border city, Laredo, TX. She attended Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) where she was selected as a Ronald E. McNair Scholar and worked at the National Natural Toxins Research Center under the direction of Dr. Elda E. Sanchez. She graduated from TAMUK in May of 2016 with a Bachelor�s of Science in chemistry. She was selected for the 2016-2017 NIH Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) at The University of Alabama at Birmingham where she worked in the Department of Neurobiology under the faculty mentorship of Dr. Farah D. Lubin. Her PREP projects investigated epigenetic mechanisms involved in learning and memory. Gaby joined the Neuroscience Graduate Program at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in 2017 after completion of PREP. Currently, Gaby is a 2020 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Fellow and Ph.D. Candidate in Dr. Joanna L. Jankowsky�s laboratory. Her Ph.D. studies focus on the selective vulnerability of neurons in Alzheimer�s disease (AD). The goal of her thesis project is to investigate activity-dependence as a possible mechanism of selective neuronal loss in AD. In addition to her research, Gaby was selected as a 2019-2020 student representative for BCM�s Neuroscience Graduate Program Admissions Committee, serves as a peer mentor for incoming graduate and BCM PREP students, and is a founding executive board member of the first Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) chapter in Houston. Gaby remains actively engaged in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that support the next generation of scientists and she is committed to continue mentoring, teaching, and facilitating access and intrigue of STEM to underrepresented groups of students.