She teaches health communication, communication ethics, and end-of-life studies to undergraduate and graduate students, and has also taught in the medical school and the MBMH Program (Master's in Bioethics and Medical Humanities) in the USF Morsani College of Medicine. Her research focuses on communication at the end of life; past projects included examining the factors that led people to seek Jack Kevorkian's help in dying, family dynamics in the Terri Schiavo case, improving access to end -of-life care, and patient-physician communication. She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, and serves on the ethics committees of several hospitals and hospices. She is the author (with David P. Schenck) of the forthcoming book, Communication and Bioethics at the End-of-Life: Real Cases, Real Dilemmas.