She received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and completed a clinical psychology internship at Yale Medical School.Her research has examined the transition to parenthood in diverse families, including lesbian-parent families and adoptive-parent families. In particular, her work has focused on how families' relationships and identities change across the transition to parenthood and how gender and sexual orientation figure into individuals' adjustment and experience of parenthood. In addition, she has studied the experiences of adults raised by lesbian, gay, and bisexual parents.She has received funding from the American Psychological Association, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Williams Institute, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.