She graduated with a B.S. in Biology from Southern Nazarene University in 1988. She received her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in 1994. After a post-doc at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, she followed her passion for teaching to join the faculty of Biology at Southern Nazarene University in 1995. She joined the College of Medicine faculty at OU in 2010 where she currently serves as course director for the gross anatomy course. In 2012, the medical students presented her with an Aesculapian Award for Excellence in Teaching the Basic Sciences.