My name is Sam Vielee and I am a 4th year Ph.D. candidate at the University of Louisville. I grew up in Indianapolis, IN, USA before moving to Tuscaloosa, AL, USA where I earned my B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Alabama. While at UA, I worked with Dr. Anathbandhu Chaudhuri where I studied the neurotoxic effects of over-the-counter pesticides in Drosophila melanogaster. I was also an undergraduate teaching assistant for multiple courses while earning my B.S. and volunteered with organizations focused on healthcare inequities around the world. After graduating in 2021, I joined the University of Louisville as a M.S./Ph.D. student in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology. I joined the NeuroWise Laboratory in January 2022, under the mentorship of Dr. John Wise, Jr., where I use a Toxic Aging Coin approach to study hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] neurotoxicity across a variety of models (rats, guinea pigs, C. elegans). Under Dr. Wise's mentorship, I earned a T32 pre-doctoral fellowship (May 2023), successfully defended my M.S. thesis (July 2023), and achieved doctoral candidacy (October 2023). So far in my graduate career, I have published 4 first-author papers, with 5 more papers in preparation. I am looking forward to continuing my graduate education and maturing as a toxicologist as I prepare to attend the 2025 SOT annual meeting!