She has worked in the field of early childhood for over 20 years, as a classroom teacher, program director, university faculty, and researcher. Her scholarly work focuses on the effects of early fathering on child development in diverse families. She received a Head Start Student Scholar award for her dissertation to develop a measure of positive early father-child interaction to be used by Early Head Start home visitors. She currently serves as a cochair for the state Bureau of Child Development advisory council tasked with coordinating early childhood systems to ensure all young children in the state receive ongoing developmental screening and appropriate intervention services.