She spent six years as an elementary school teacher for children with autism in Los Angeles before attending graduate school at University of California, Riverside (UCR), where she received her PhD in special education. She also completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center focusing on skill acquisition and behavior reduction procedures within the classroom setting. Her research interests include student-teacher relationships, parent-teacher relationships, and the implementation of evidence-based practices for students with autism in the classroom.