Her expertise is ecological engineering to improve water quality. Her research program integrates field-based methods with quantitative modeling to develop solutions that advance the science of stream and wetland restoration and stormwater management. She teaches applied statistics to sophomores, and ecological engineering and stormwater design to seniors and graduate students. She earned her B.S. and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Iowa and her Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.