For forty years, she has taught courses in composition studies, sociolinguistics, creative nonfiction, nature writing, medicine in literature, women’s nonfiction, and has a particular interest in the history of the essay and Joan Didion. Her publications include scholarship in the field of Writing & Rhetoric and essays in the genre of creative nonfiction. Her first book, What the River Means (1999) was published y Duquesne University Press in its Emerging Writers in Creative Nonfiction series and was one of four finalists in 2000 for the Library of Virginia Book Award in nonfiction. She is currently working on a second book exploring care-taking, Keeping Folks Alive.