She has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Northwestern University (2002) and an M.S. in environmental science from Rochester Institute of Technology (2012). Her research focuses on identifying priorities in forest management and, more generally, on supporting reasoning about values in scientific contexts, including climate policy and science education. She has published articles on values that shape different responses to the genetically engineered American chestnut and on the challenges to incorporating humanities and social scientific perspectives into scientific research.