She earned her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with an emphasis on public relations. Her M.A. is from the University of Georgia, and her B.A. is from Ewha Women's University in South Korea. Her research areas include corporate reputation, corporate social responsibility, crisis communication, and agenda-building/agenda-setting theory. Her work has been published in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Advertising and Public Relations Review. At UNC, she taught case studies in PR, and she has been teaching PR strategies and crisis communication at TTU. Prior to joining TTU, she also worked for broadcasting and magazine companies in Korea and has done PR consulting work with several organizations, such as the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, SAS and Hyundai.