She received her Ph.D. in aesthetic education and curriculum and instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her M.A. degree in art history from Brown University. Her research interests include the transformative potential of aesthetic experience, the development of aesthetic understanding, the theory and practice of museum education, and program evaluation theory and practice. She has published articles in several peer-reviewed journals, including Studies in Art Education, Arts Education Policy Review, American Journal of Evaluation, Educational Theory, and the Arts & Learning Research Journal. She also serves as an educational evaluation consultant, conducting evaluations in K-12 public school settings on arts education, arts integration, teacher professional development, and literacy education projects.