Previously she served as the Deputy Dean for the School of Public Affairs and Administration and during the 2009/2010 academic year she held the position of Faculty Fellow in the Office of the Chancellor at Rutgers University-Newark. While on research leave in 2017, she was an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Politics at University College London. She earned a Ph.D. in political science from School of Public Affairs at American University, Washington, D.C. and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Delaware.