I am an accomplished cancer cell biologist and microscopist with cross-disciplinary training in cell migration and extracellular vesicle (EV) biology. Building on my discovery that exosome secretion regulates cell adhesion and migration and extracellular matrix (ECM) assembly, I have a strong interest in defining the molecular mechanisms that underlie these processes and determining the impact on the tumor microenvironment and cancer aggressiveness. My long-term research interests are to elucidate mechanisms by which cells migrate and invade tissues. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Weaver laboratory, I revealed that the branched actin assembly protein cortactin promotes cancer cell motility and lamellipodial persistence by regulating the secretion of an ECM protein fibronectin from the late endosomal/lysosomal compartment. This finding led me to later discover that fibronectin is secreted through exosomes and that fibronectin-containing exosomes promote the speed of cancer cell migration. Moreover, I found that exosome secretion promotes cancer cell chemotaxis. To track this process in real-time, I developed novel live imaging reporters (pHluorinM153R-CD63 and pHluoriM153R-CD63-mScarlet) that track exosome secretion and uptake as well as multivesicular body trafficking and directly demonstrated pathfinding behavior of migrating “follower” cancer cells on exosomes secreted by “leader” cells. Based on experience and knowledge of exosomes and ECM, I am currently using a breast cancer model to investigate how exosome secretion regulates the initiation of ECM assembly to allow cancer cell survival and invasion at primary tumor sites and colonization of distant metastatic sites. I am also actively engaged in a research study of the mechanistic integration between cell adhesion and the biogenesis of motility-promoting exosomes during cancer progression. I have mentored many technicians, students, and postdoctoral fellows as well as multiple rotation students in the laboratory. I am also currently mentoring a technician in the laboratory, who is working on a cancer cell migration project.