She also serves as chair of the Domestic Social and Economic Development concentration at the Brown School, Faculty Director for Thriving Communities at the Center for Social Development, Community Engagement Fellow at the Gephardt Institute and board member at the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council. She received her B.A. in Women’s Studies from Carleton College in 2001 and Ph.D. in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University in 2012. Prior to her doctoral training, she worked in low-income housing in Chicago as a social services coordinator.