Is a researcher, educator, podcaster, and dancer. She is currently a researcher at the University of Southern California Keck Medical School focused on the science of team science: how do we collaborate better for more impactful science? Mayla loves teaching and has taught all ages and a variety of subjects including Math, Science, Hebrew school, Bat Mitzvah tutoring, and Israeli dance. A notable facet of Mayla’s background is her deep understanding of Jewish theology and traditions, rooted in her undergraduate degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. This, combined with her hard science degrees in Mathematics at Columbia University and PhD from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Computational Biosciences, equips her with a well-rounded approach to scientific endeavors, especially when deploying advanced AI tools in research. Her graduate advisor was Larry Hunter, our esteemed advisor. She also started The Ignorance Podcast in 2025, where she interviews researchers about their research questions, as a new way to communicate science to the public. When not doing all of these things, Mayla loves to be outside in nature hiking, biking, or skiing.
