She has served the field of early childhood education for 38 years, of which 30 have been in higher education and the remaining working with young children. She has diverse work experiences in Houston, New York, West Lafayette, Champaign-Urbana, Detroit, and India. She is an author and coauthor of several articles and chapters on topics such as parent-peer linkages, parent-child relationships, home-school-community relationships, parenting stress of African American mothers, culture and infancy, cross-cultural child development, portfolio assessments, program evaluations, and children's literature. She has served on publication committees of Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Early Education and Development, Early Childhood Research & Practice, and Childhood Education.