She received her Ph.D. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior joining ETSU in August 2014, she conducted postdoctoral research at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, and later at the Earth Institute, Columbia University. Her research has been focusing on assessing health impacts of ambient air pollution and global climate change using integrated assessment approaches, both in developed countries (U.S. and United Arab Emirates) and developing countries (Thailand and China). She has been funded by the ETSU Research Development Committee to study the impacts of climate change on future heat-related mortality. She is a Co-Investigator on a NIEHS/EPA funded large grant to understand the effects of indoor air pollution on adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Central Appalachia.