She received her doctorate and master's in American Studies from the University of New Mexico and her bachelor's degree from Macalester College in German Studies and English with a Women and Gender Studies minor. Her book Mediating Morality: The Politics of Teen Pregnancy in the Post-Welfare Era was published in 2017 by the University of Massachusetts Press. Her work has also appeared in Signs: Journal of Women and Culture in Society, the edited MTV and Teen Pregnancy: Critical Essays on Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant, and the library science journal Collection Building. She periodically teaches courses in the Department of Communication, the Gender and Sexuality Studies program, the Honors Program, and the Spark Residential Learning Community.