Dominique grew up on a large vegetable farm in the Santa Maria valley of California. She has always loved plants, and began to work and intern with local seed companies at a young age with aspirations to become a plant breeder.

While studying for a BS in Biology at Tufts, she assisted research on drought’s effect on Tea (Camellia sinensis) as well as the impact of two major pests on Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis).

Dominique joined the Knapp group in August of 2015 to pursue both her MS and PhD in Horticulture and Agronomy. Her research focuses on the impact of soil-borne pathogens (e.g. Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. fragariae, Verticillium dahliae, Macrophomina phaseolina, Phytophthora cactorum) on cultivated strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa), with the aim of (1) quantifying the resistance of advanced selections from the strawberry breeding pipeline, and (2) ultimately identifying novel resistance and improving the speed at which resistant cultivars can be bred through the use of genomics- and genetics-enabled technologies (e.g. genomic prediction, marker-assisted selection).  She also enjoys diving into the historical literature of strawberry, and has constructed and maintained a multi-generational and international pedigree database.