She was associate director of Cornell’s Community and Rural Development Institute for nearly a decade, and assistant program officer for the Ford Foundation’s Rural Poverty and Resource Program prior to that. Her research is focused on devolution and privatization of local government service delivery and models for linking economic development and social service provision. She is author of many refereed articles and book chapters and has received major research grants from the USDA National Research Initiative and Hatch program to look at the impacts of devolution and privatization on local government service delivery, and from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services and several foundations to explore the regional economic impacts of child care.