She received her Bachelors (Summa Cum Laude), Masters, and Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University, where she was an All-American Track and Field athlete. Her research interests are race and ethnicity, the sociology of sport, and the contemporary African-American experience. Recent publications found in the Journal of Black Studies and the Journal of African-American Studies, explore the intersection of race and sport while examining the experience of African-American male elite athletes.