She received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Texas A&M University. She became a director’s postdoctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, then joined the faculty at NMSU. Houston’s research expertise is in the area of biomedical engineering, and her laboratory develops high-throughput optical methods for in vitro cellular analyses. Houston received the NSF CAREER award in 2012, the NMSU Early Career award in 2014, and the Outstanding Junior Faculty award by the NMSU Hispanic Caucus in 2010.