She holds a Bachelors and Masters degree from Purdue University Calumet, and a Ph.D. in Speech Communication from Southern Illinois University. She specializes in identity, intersectionality, qualitative research methods, and Chicana/o history and identities. She regularly teaches classes in oral interpretation, qualitative research methods, public relations, and narrative theory and performance. In 2015 she received the 2015 Outstanding Women of Color in Education Award given by the UW-System.