She holds a PhD in Health & Behavioral Sciences and an MA in Medical Anthropology. Her research interests include the construction of social problems; ethnography of drug use; the role of personal networks in survival, addiction and recovery; gendered constructions of risk; and the anthropology of human-animal interactions/relationships. She is currently a co-investigator on a NIDA-funded ethnographic study of the drug acquisition and survival strategies of active methamphetamine users in Northern Colorado.