She completed her PhD in Economics at Georgia State University in 2010 and her Bachelor of Science in Engineering at Harvey Mudd College in 1998. She is an environmental and behavioral economist who studies interactions between preferences and institutions, mostly using laboratory experiments. Her work has been published in top field journals such as Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and Experimental Economics. Specific themes in her work include reciprocity, cases in which social preferences yield inefficient outcomes, and punishment and deterrence. She has current projects on security institutions, proxy decision-making, the enforcement of water pollution regulations, racial bias, and charity donations.