Christina Lildharrie is pursuing a doctoral degree in neuroscience at The University of Texas at Austin. She graduated from Drexel University in 2022 with a custom-designed bachelor’s degree in neuroscience policy. After graduation, she was named a National Institutes of Health Research Fellow, where she coordinated a clinical trial investigating how drugs affect brain signaling. In August 2024, Christina began her doctoral program in the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program at UT Austin, studying the negative consequences of childhood trauma on the brain and behavior. Passionate about civic engagement, Lildharrie organized outreach activities for neuroscience graduate students to engage the public in science. Outside the lab, she fostered community by leading discussion groups in a maximum-security prison. She looks forward to using the Graduate Archer Fellowship experience to learn how to leverage research on childhood trauma to inform evidence-based policies in child welfare and juvenile justice systems.