Her research and teaching focus on the ethics, theory, and practice of sustainable development, community engaged design, and the history of urban social movements. Her research is often change-oriented—she collaborates with real community partners to identify opportunities for engaged and integrated sustainable development. Her current projects include finishing a ten year effort with the City of Austin to create an Alley Greening Program; researching sustainable retrofitting strategies that preserve unsubsidized affordable housing; developing tools for public engagement around complex sustainability problems; and identifying pathways to support leadership equity in public interest design (PID) practice. Her community-engaged research has received local and national recognition, and she looks forward to contributing energy toward collaborations in the Charlottesville region.