Prior to obtaining her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction with a concentration on literacy education, she was a former high school English teacher. Her research focuses on disciplinary writing, writing instruction in juvenile detention facilities and the literacy practices of youth in alternative schools and juvenile detention facilities. Her recent work has appeared in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, English Journal, Voices from the Middle, and Middle School Journal. She has reviewed for Voices from the Middle and the British Journal of Educational Technology.