She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet performance from the University of Kentucky. She is the English hornist with the Huntington Symphony Orchestra and plays clarinet with the Kingsbury Woodwind Quintet. In the summers she teaches woodwinds and performs with the Festival Orchestra and the Festival Band at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Michigan. Before beginning to teach at the collegiate level, she taught band grades 5-12 in the Grainger County, Tennessee public school system.