She earned her PhD in Biology at Arizona State University with Jon Harrison and completed postdoctoral training in Farrah Kheradmand’s lab in the section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, where she was awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein fellowship. She started her research group at NDSU in 2007, with a focus on understanding how physiological systems change throughout juvenile and pupal development in insects, including the tracheal respiratory system, immunity, fat storage, and metabolism. She directs Pollination Nation, a REU program focused on training undergraduates to do research on insect biology. Areas of expertise: Insects, physiology, development, metabolism, immunity, matrix metalloproteinases, respiration.