Her undergraduate degrees were in Mathematics and Studio Art and she received her PhD in Mathematics from the University of Chicago in 2000. Through post-docs at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and the University of California - Santa Cruz, and visiting positions at Bowdoin College and Reed College, she gradually transitioned from algebraic geometry to algebraic topology. She just finished a year's sabbatical as a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia where she went to lots and lots of math talks. Her main research interest is in equivariant versions of generalized cohomology theories, but she also has work in string theory/dynamics, sudoku, and math/art/3D printing. She has been out (openly gay) in the classroom since graduate school.