She brings research expertise both in-depth qualitative and large-scale survey work, as well as grounded experience in working with low-income, diverse, and marginalized groups to the study of place meaning, place attachments and identity, and the politics of place. Her research includes studies of the transformation of New York City's landlord-abandoned building into low-income cooperatives, the culturally-specific housing needs of Latino farm workers in Washington’s Yakima Valley, and the effects of public housing redevelopment in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a PhD in environmental psychology from the City University of New York, along with bachelors and masters degrees in psychology.