Her primary research areas are the rhetoric of health and medicine and programmatic issues within the field of technical and professional communication (TPC). She is immediate Past President of the Council of Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication, Special Projects Manager of the Academic Special Interest Group of the Society of Technical Communication, a member of the steering committee of Women in Technical Communication, manager of MedicalRhetoric.com, and founder and co-editor (with Blake Scott, University of Central Florida) of the journal, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine. Her research and teaching has been recognized with multiple awards and along with other steering committee members of Women in Technical Communication, she is honored to have won the Diana Award for contributions to the field.