Her research focuses on improving undergraduate science education, particularly evaluating the efficacy of different teaching methods in enhancing student learning. Another major focus of her program is training faculty and future faculty in scientific teaching. She runs the eh National Academies Summer Institute at West Virginia University, a regional offshoot of the National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Biology Education (NASI). She serves as the Director for the National Academies Scientific Teaching Alliance (NASTA), and on the executive board of the Biology Director's Consortium (BDC), and is a founding member of the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER). She graduated with a BS in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Arizona, Tucson.