She earned her Ph.D. in mass communication from The University of Southern Mississippi and previously taught at Louisiana Tech University. She is the editor of the award-winning Rock Brands: Selling Sound in a Media Saturated Culture (Lexington, 2011) and the author of a companion yearlong nationally awarded blog on music marketing published by Rowman & Littlefield. Her other professional research includes work in journalism history, prison journalism, literary journalism and popular culture.