Her research focuses on student transitions into and through higher education. In addition, she was co-author and co-editor of Helping Sophomores Succeed: Understanding and Improving the Second-Year Experience. Prior to coming to UTA in 2009, she was the associate director of the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition based at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. She earned her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2001.