As a high school teacher, college professor and university researcher, she works to understand and support adolescent literacy both in and out of school. Her research interests include the confluence of literacy and identity development, secondary pre-service teachers’ notions of literacy in the content areas, young adult literature, critical pedagogy/literacy, education in place, and qualitative methodologies. Recent publications include a collaborative, interdisciplinary article in The Social Studies, entitled “Dimensions of Citizenship through the Lens of The Hunger Games: Fiction and the Visual and Performing Arts as Springboards for Citizenship Education.”