Hannah was born and raised in Huntington Beach, California. She is a 2022 graduate of Johns Hopkins University with majors in biomedical engineering and Spanish. Prior to UCSF, she conducted academic and industry research in cell biology, tissue engineering, and hardware/software development of medical devices. She also underwent orthognathic (corrective jaw) surgery, experiencing first-hand how a severely dysfunctional and unaesthetic orthodontic bite can negatively affect both physical and mental health. This inspired her to shift her focus and pursue studies in dentistry. Her research interests include hardware and software development for oral biology. She aspires to become a dentist-engineer who harmonizes the patient, clinician, and researcher perspectives to develop dental technologies that best meet broad and inclusive societal needs.
Outside of school, Hannah enjoys running, rock climbing, Christian fellowship, learning languages, cooking, and community service. Through the nonprofit Matriculate, she mentored low/middle-income high school students to navigate financial aid, scholarships, and college applications, resulting in over $1 million in awarded scholarships and financial aid for students to study engineering at top private and public universities. She looks forward to continuing college access work through the Bay Area nonprofit ScholarMatch and to becoming dynamically involved with other aspects of the San Francisco community.
