Her undergraduate degree in nursing is from the University of Tennessee; her masters and nurse practitioner degrees are from Emory University in Atlanta and her PhD in exercise physiology is from Oregon Health & Science University, as is her post-doctoral degree in neuroendocrine physiology. She is the director of the Family Nurse Practitioner Program and President of the Fibromyalgia Information Foundation, a non-profit organization whose aim for the past three decades has been to disseminate scientifically sound fibromyalgia data. She is a frequently invited international speaker for patients, clinicians and researchers investigating fibromyalgia. She also maintains a clinical practice at Oregon Health & Science University in which she evaluates and treats people with fibromyalgia.