She is also the Associate Director of the National ESCA and Surface Analysis Center for Biomedical Problems (NESAC/BIO) as well as Associate Director of the Molecular Analysis Facility (MAF) at the UW. She received her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from University of California, Santa Cruz in (1990) and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Washington (1996). She did her postdoctoral research at NESAC/BIO (1997-2000) then worked at Zyomyx, Inc., a biotech startup in Fremont, CA. She returned to the University of Washington in 2003.