With a background spanning architecture, landscape design, website design, and instructional design, the focus of her research is design history, design education, and the various ways in which design fields define their aims and disciplinary boundaries (comparative design). In 2014, she received the IU Trustees Teaching Award for her outstanding skills and knowledge as an educator. Before joining the design faculty at IU, she worked professionally at design firms in Utah and Arizona, and worked as an instructional systems designer in the Midwest, creating instructional and procedural materials associated with critical processes for one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.