She directs the Mayo Clinic Patient Education Research Program and is Medical Director of the Mayo Clinic Wellness Coaching Program. She completed her BA at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Dakota, in Grand Forks, North Dakota. She completed a clinical internship in behavioral medicine at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics and the Medical Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry & Psychology, Mayo Clinic.