She received a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Indiana University and a MFA in Photography and Digital Media from the University of Cincinnati. Her research interests include material culture studies, contemporary art practices, and environmental psychology. She has written about the relationship between contemporary collecting and artistic practice within a consumer society, with a focus on the collecting practices of artists, art educators, and students. Current investigations seek to expand and gather information about urban students and their relationship with the physical environments of both school and home and explore how this relationship affects behavior, identity, and creative production.