She earned her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Grinnell College in 1987 and her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at the University of Minnesota in 1996. She was an assistant professor in the Dept of Civil Engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1995 to 1998 when she joined the faculty at the University of Iowa. At Iowa, she teaches upper level and graduate courses in environmental engineering and air pollution control. She also teaches Engineering Problem Solving, the first engineering course for all undergraduate majors.