Christina Birch

The Arizona native graduated from the University of Arizona, Tucson, with degrees in mathematics and biochemistry and molecular biophysics.

After earning a doctorate in biological engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, she taught bioengineering at the University of California, Riverside, and scientific writing and communication at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

Birch left academia to become a decorated track cyclist on the U.S. National Team.