She is an Emmy-Award winning reporter, working in television news in California and Florida for 30 years before teaching full time at SJSU. She has won a national award from the Broadcast Education Association for "Opening Oman," a documentary about changing attitudes toward tourism in the Middle East. She has led students to Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Greece and Italy. Together with Prof. Halima Kazem, she is helping students report on the refugee crisis in Europe. Fluent in Italian, she has lived and worked for several years in Italy. She wrote her master's thesis on L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.