She received her B.A. in history from Dartmouth College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Princeton University. Her research interests include 20th Century United States political and social history and modern African American history. Her writing has been published in the Journal of Federal History, Souls, Oxford African American Studies Center Online/African American National Biography, as well as in the anthology Making the South Red: When, Where, Why, and How the South Became Republican. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Mellon Mays Program, the Social Science Research Council, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the National Archives/Presidential Libraries, and Oberlin College.