She earned an M.S. in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in biology from Saint Vincent College. Madden is the Program Coordinator and student mentor for the WBHR Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation at HCC and a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) for HCC’s National Science Foundation (NSF) S-STEM program. She is serving as Program Committee Vice-Chair for the American Society for Microbiology Conference for Undergraduate Educators and was a 2014-2015 ASM Biology Scholar. She is also the co-chair of a science and social studies fair at Fountain Green Elementary School. Her interests include utilizing student research experiences (Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences) and active learning techniques in the classroom in order to increase student success and retention in STEM fields, especially for first-generation, nontraditional, and URM student populations.