She is the Director of the Center for Writing Research and Pedagogy, and the Director of the Illinois State University Writing Program. She teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in rhetoric and writing Studies. Her research is primarily concerned with the ideas, productions, and communities that can be developed and facilitated through interactions between humans and their composing tools. Her recent article with James Purdy, "Valuing Digital Scholarship: Exploring the Changing Realities of Intellectual Work" which appeared in MLA Profession 2010, won the Ellen Nold Award for best article from the Computers & Writing conference in 2011. She is currently at work on a book-length project with Kevin Roozen called Tracing Trajectories of Practice and Person: Sociohistoric Perspectives of Literate Activity.