She holds a B.A. from Tufts University, an M.A. and PhD. from Washington University in St. Louis, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. She teaches courses including Introduction to Psychology, the Psychology of Spoken Words, Sensation & Perception, and Perceptual & Cognitive Expertise. Her research focuses on how humans are able to turn sensory information about speech into meaningful representations. Topics of research include how cognitive abilities influence language perception, what traits of words promote easy recognition, how word recognition abilities change with age, and how visual information (seeing the talker) influences language processing.