She received a B.A. and a Ph.D. in psychology in 1998 and 2003, respectively, from Indiana University under the supervision of Dr. Linda B. Smith. Before joining University of Houston in 2006, she was a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Psychological and Brain Sciences Program at Indiana University. Her primary research concerns how contextual cues (e.g., words, perceptual cues, and social cues) organize infants’ and children’s attention, getting it exquisitely tuned to immediate task demands and further propelling future learning. She has a demonstrated record of successful and productive research programs and has published her work in respected journals including Cognition, Developmental Science, Psychological Sciences, and Infancy.