She earned her M.A. and PhD in Sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln while raising two wonderful children with her husband, Rob Benford. As a feminist criminologist she researches motherhood within legal and policy constraints. In addition to publishing on criminalized and allegedly “bad” mothers, she is co-editor of Addressing and Preventing Violence Against Women on College Campuses (Temple University Press, forthcoming) and Alliances for Advancing Academic Women: Guidelines for Collaborating in STEM (Sense Publishers, 2014). She is currently analyzing discourses of mothering in global economic and social campaigns, along with very much enjoying being a new grandma.