Leslie has devoted her career to partnering animal welfare with technical skills and scientific curiosity. After obtaining her M.S. in Animal Biology from the University of California, Davis, she continued to develop her knowledge in rodent surgical model development. Leslie has worked at the Jackson Laboratory characterizing surgical models funded by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, and at the UC Davis Mouse Biology Program where she optimized and validated bariatric surgical models. Prior to joining Retro, she worked at Ambys Medicines as the manager of in-vivo surgery, where she integrated surgical methods for liver regeneration into the development of a pre-clinical manufacturing pipeline.
Outside of the vivarium, Leslie enjoys adventuring outdoors with her family, visiting breweries and wineries with friends, and baking.