Her research focuses on social and environmental inequalities, and environmental injustice. Recent research projects include identifying the Philadelphia-area communities most burdened with environmental hazards; an analysis of social characteristics that coincide with living near the most hazardous facilities in the Philadelphia area; and studies of environmental injustice in inner-city Phoenix and an Arizona copper mining town. She teaches a variety of courses at Drexel on topics including environmental justice, sociology of the environment, sociology of disasters, urban sociology, and women and men in a changing society. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D., both is sociology, from Arizona State University and a B.S. in sociology from Portland State University.