She earned her PhD in Communicative Disorders from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her MHS from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and her BS from Iowa State University. She directs the Aphasia and Motor Speech Disorders Research Lab at Georgia State University. Her research interests include aphasia, stress, integrative health, depression, as well as dysarthria and prosody. She has over 40 peer-reviewed publications in these areas. Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, Academy of Neurological Communication Disorders and Sciences, and other entities.