She studies family, school, and community partnerships, parental values and beliefs about education, and the schooling experiences of immigrant and U.S.-born children of color. From 2000-2002, she was a National Science Foundation Minority Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Under the umbrella of the Harvard Immigration Projects, she conducted a study of the way values and beliefs about academic achievement are communicated between Haitian immigrant parents and children, and how this process affects the children's academic engagement. In 2003, she was awarded a National Academy of Education/Spencer Fellowship to work on a book manuscript based on this research. She earned a doctorate in human development and family studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2000.