Prior to joining Brown, she served as an assistant professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. Her degrees are in biomedical engineering from Brown University (Sc.B., 1995) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (M.S., 1996; Ph.D., 2000). Through this GK-12 program and other initiatives she has worked to build connections between the Providence Public School system and Brown University, so that students in the rising generation might consider futures in science.