Trained in International Relations, she earned her Ph.D. from Florida International University in Miami. In addition to teaching Introduction to Women's Studies, Women and Work, Women and Men in Cross-cultural Perspective and Women in International Relations, she regularly teaches the General Education course, Individual and Society. Her research focuses on gender, security and illicit drug trafficking. An article, entitled "Victims and Vamps, Madonnas and Whores: The Construction of Female Drug Couriers and the Practices of the U.S. Security State," recently was published in the International Feminist Journal of Politics.