She earned a doctorate in medical sociology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in 2005. She also holds a Gerontology certificate, MA, and BA. She serves as a senior fellow for the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, and is board elected secretary for Grace Home Foundation (a non-profit organization supporting an orphanage/primary school in Katmandu, Nepal). Her areas of research include health lifestyles, women’s and global health. She has published peer-review articles in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, AIDS and Behavior, Women’s Health, Social Inequalities in Health and Health Care Delivery, and in the Encyclopedia of Medical Sociology and George Ritzer’s Encyclopedia of Sociology (among others). She teaches medical sociology, sex and gender, quantitative and qualitative research methods, theory and the senior seminar.