She received her Ph. D. in linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011. She teaches courses in linguistics and language variation and her research focuses primarily on the use of African American Language in public and political speech. She has also developed an oral history project about life in Flint, Michigan entitled the Vehicle City Voices (VCV) Project. She is currently serving as president of the board of directors of the New Evolution Educational Center, a new nonprofit dedicated to expanding educational opportunities for children in grades K-12 in Flint.