She earned a doctoral degree in geophysics/geodesy from Purdue University in 2013, where she was a National Science Foundation graduate research Fellow. She earned the National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellowship for studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California Los Angeles and was a National Geographic Explorer for her work on the tectonics of Madagascar. Her research also focuses on lithospheric dynamics, mantle-lithosphere interactions, and active tectonics.