She earned her MA and PhD in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa. Her dissertation focused on the use of genetic testing technologies in reproductive medicine. Her ongoing research focuses on public discourses of health, science, and medicine as they intersect with wider cultural constructions of gender, race, power and privilege. She has looked at the vaccine/autism controversy, media representations of illness and medicine, and is currently working on a project about Zika virus. She also studies pedagogy and oral communication.