She received her BS in Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State University in 1997, MS in Bioengineering at the University of Utah in 2000 and PhD in Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State University in 2003. She worked as a scientist for a Biotech company called VaxDesign Corp previously Sciperio Inc Orlando FL. Her work at VaxDesign included a DARPA funded project of the development of an Artificial Immune System for the rapid development and testing of vaccines. She is currently a reviewer for Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, International Journal of Experimental Pathology and Journal of Pathology. She currently has eight published or filed patent applications and several journal publications in the field of Tissue Engineering.