Her teaching areas include social deviance, drugs, social policy and child welfare. She has worked closely with the American Sociological Association on a number of teaching related projects including ones on juvenile delinquency and graduate education. Publications include Drugs and Society: A Critical Perspective and articles on child welfare. Her current research interest focuses on risk-taking among older adolescents and young adults. She became Director of the Honors Program in 2004. Over the past years she has worked closely with students on a variety of new honors initiatives including First Pages and Honors Welcome Week in addition to starting the award-winning newsletter the Honors Perspective.