She holds the Lutcher Brown Endowed Professorship of Anthropology and was named a University of Texas System Regents Outstanding Teacher. Her research focuses on the rise of complexity in the Maya lowlands and role of ritual and ceremonial architecture in the Preclassic period. She is currently the director of the Mopan Valley Preclassic Project and co-director of the Mopan Valley Archaeological Project. She has focused her recent investigations at the site of Xunantunich, Belize. She is the co-editor of Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare and has several recent publications that have appeared in Mexicon, Advances in Archaeological Practices, and Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology.