Before joining the university faculty in 2002, she taught elementary school for 23 years. Her résumé includes experience in the rural schools of Mississippi and in the urban classrooms of New York City. After earning her PhD at New York University in New York City, she spent 10 years in the elementary classroom to research practical new methods of using children’s literature to foster connections across curriculum boundaries while scaffolding students to think metacognitively. Results are published in her book Valued Voices: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching and Learning.