She received her PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Colorado State University, where she was awarded a fellowship for teaching. Her research focuses on student motivation and learning. Specifically, she explores the constraints that external rewards place on students’ personal interest for learning and she works to apply these research interests in the classroom to create a student-centered, active and engaging environment. Teaching at Colorado State University and Armstrong State University in Georgia before joining the faculty at Davis and Elkins afforded her the opportunity to teach a variety of topics across a broad range of class sizes. Currently, she teaches Introduction to Psychology, Personality Theories, Adolescent Development, and Cognitive Psychology.