Nat is a third year doctoral candidate in the Bioengineering department, training under co-advisors Drs. Rakié Cham and Helmet Karim. Nat will be investigating the relationship between depression and postural control and their impact on falls in adults with advanced primary open-angle glaucoma. To assess these relationships, she will be developing a task to induce transient mood states based on participants’ personal experience that can be implemented during standing balance conditions, gait conditions, and an fMRI protocol. She will be investigating behaviors and neural correlates to further elucidate mechanisms of falls risk in advanced glaucoma to ultimately inform treatment strategies and fall-prevention plans. She presented her findings regarding visual field loss and the multi-sensory contributions to gait symmetry in mild-moderate glaucoma in The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) 2021 Annual Meeting, for which she won the Knights Templar Eye Foundation Travel Grant.