She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology of Education and M.A. in Educational Policy Analysis from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her B.A. in Political Science is from Texas Southern University. Prior to joining the St. John's University faculty, she held academic leadership and teaching positions in higher education, as well as an elementary school principal position. Her area of research includes social justice and multiculturalism in educational organizations, leadership practices and educational policy, socio-political analysis of educational achievement, and ethnographic approaches to understanding social class stratification.