Prior to this appointment she served as an Assistant Research Faculty in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. She is an experimentalist focused on the combustion, characterization, processing, and improvement of materials ranging from traditional materials to the nanoscale for propulsion and energy storage. Her research has included the study of combustion of nanosized powders to synthesize intermetallic and ceramic materials, small scale propagation of gasless reactions, direct write of biocidal materials, and most recently has focused on additive manufacturing routes for energetic materials, to name a few. She is the author or co-author of more than 30 peer reviewed publications since 2010.