She received her Ph.D. in American government and women and politics from Georgetown University in 2004. Her areas of research include the study of female legislators, feminist legal theory, organized interest litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court, and judicial behavior. Previous publications include the book chapters “Women in the 107th Congress: The Past Meets the Future” (coauthored with Sue Thomas and Beth Stark) and “Women in Congress: Descriptive Representation and Democratic Governance” and the journal article “Feminism and Pornography in the Twenty-First Century: The Internet's Impact on the Feminist Pornography Debate.”