 In 1991, amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union, she helped start the CCDS, a platform initially operating inside the CPUSA seeking to reorient the party's ideology away from orthodox communism.When the majority of party members voted against CCDS proposals, along with CCDS colleagues, she left the CPUSA.Also in 1991, she joined the feminist studies department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she became department director before retiring in 2008.