She earned her B.S. in Biology and her Ph.D. in Environmental Science both from the University of Cincinnati. She is a recent recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award through which she is focusing her research efforts on building an understanding of antibiotic resistance genes as environmental contaminants. Her recent paper entitled, �Antibiotic Resistance Genes as Emerging Contaminants: Studies in Northern Colorado,� recently won second runner up to the best paper for the year 2006 in Environmental Science & Technology.