A native New Yorker from Brooklyn, she received her Ph.D. in curriculum, instruction and teacher education from Michigan State University. Her research on race won the 2016 Distinguished Dissertation in Teacher Education Award from the Association of Teacher Educators. Her writing on race has been published extensively in both academic journals and mainstream outlets. Her scholarship centers on Critical Whiteness Studies and has appeared in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, English Education, The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy and other scholarly venues.