Anastasia was an incredibly bright, talented, and compassionate individual. She started her undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 2010, where she excelled in her required pre-medical school classes. She described her passion for medicine as a way to combine her intellectual interest in the sciences and her desire to interact with and help others. Anastasia was interested in neurology, psychiatry, and women's health. She graduated from Penn with honors in 2014, with a major in the Biological Basis of Behavior. She was in the process of applying to medical school when she passed away at the age of 22 from complications related to viral myocarditis.

Friends described Anastasia as brilliant, vivacious, beautiful and self-sufficient. She will always be remembered for her remarkable life, fighting spirit, and tremendous impact on all she met.