Alanna grew up in the suburbs of New York. She attended Dartmouth College, where she obtained a BA in neuroscience. After graduation, she conducted research at the National Institutes of Health. She then earned her MD and PhD at Yale University. Her thesis research focused on targeting double-strand break DNA repair for use in cancer therapy. She completed residency training in internal medicine at Stanford. In fellowship, she is looking forward to continuing to hone her clinical and research interests, which include DNA repair, genetic susceptibility to developing cancer, and brain metastases. She hopes to ultimately practice as a physician/scientist. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors in the beautiful nature of California, board games, and reading.