An Arizona native, she is the author of Borderline Americans: Racial Division and Labor War in the Arizona Borderlands (2009). Her new book, Inventing the Immigration Problem: The Dillingham Commission and its Legacy (2018), examines the long-lasting policy impact of the largest study of immigrants in American history, conducted in the early twentieth century. She has received many grants and awards, including from the Woodrow Wilson Center, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Coordinating Council for Women in History, and the National History Center. She teaches courses in the history of women, race, immigration and the American West, and enjoys working with teachers and K-12 students as well.