She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science at Rutgers University. She is an American Association of University Women Fellow and Co-Director of the Rutgers University Informed Consent Project. She is the author of several published works, including her new co-authored book The Gender of Crime (2nd edition), written with Dana Britton and Shannon Jacobsen, "The Limits of Pure White: Raced Reproduction in the Methamphetamine Crisis," published in the Women's Rights Law Reporter, and co-authored "Informed or Misinformed Consent?: Abortion Policy in the United States," published in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.