She received her B.S. and M.S. from Stephen F. Austin State University and her Ph.D. degree from Johns Hopkins University, all in geology. She worked for Mobil Exploration and Producing in Dallas, New Orleans, and Denver before joining the Centenary faculty. At Mobil, she specialized in improved recovery from aging fields. At Centenary, she expanded her interests in aging fields to consider their history and surface environmental impacts. Her Smackover work received the DEG excellence of presentation award for the best technical paper at the New Orleans 2000 meeting.