As an undergraduate studying physics at Duke University, she kept herself supplied with pizza, beer and laundry money by working part-time in the university's press office, and was also a science journalist and features editor at JYI. She then moved to the UK to do a PhD in physics at Durham University, where her research involved building a new experiment to study ultracold mixtures of rubidium and caesium atoms. After completing her PhD in 2008, she joined the editorial team of Physics World – an international monthly magazine published by the Institute of Physics – as its reviews and careers editor. Since then she has covered several international scientific conferences for the magazine and played a leading role in developing its programme of audio podcasts.