She earned an M.A. in English literature and a BA in Marketing, both from the University of Georgia. Her scholarly work focuses on the intersections of image and text to consider the related fields of book history, textual materiality, and visual culture. Recent publications include "Teaching the Visual Fielding" forthcoming in the MLA’s Approaches to Teaching the Works of Henry Fielding and "Drawing outside the Book: Parallel Illustration and Building of a Visual Culture" in Book Illustration in the Long Eighteenth Century (2011). Before her career in education, Dillard worked in media relations for the University of Georgia Athletic Association.