She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia and attained her MA and PhD from Emory University. At Wellesley, she teaches Comparative Politics, Political Economy, and Middle East politics. Her research examines how refugee communities, and in particular Palestinian refugees, created order in the midst of chaotic political economic landscapes. She spent more than ten years conducting interviews in refugee camps across Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. Her research has been published in the Journal of Policy Studies and Comparative Politics.