She holds a PhD from Texas A&M University and MA and BS degrees from the University of Wyoming. She was the principle investigator on the Yellowstone River Cultural Inventory—2006. Her most recent works, in Rural Sociology and the Professional Geographer, examine the social and cultural dynamics of amenity landscapes. She also serves on the Yellowstone River Conservation District Council’s Technical Advisory Committee, a group that works closely with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to investigate the cumulative effects of human activities on the river.