She received her Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Missouri – St. Louis. Her research focuses on the use of quantitative methodologies to understand trends in criminal victimization, especially trends in family violence and crimes against women and children. She was the recipient of a 2015 Bureau of Justice Statistics Graduate Research Fellowship from the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, as well as the 2015 Larry J. Siegel Graduate Fellowship for Victimology Studies from the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Victimology.