In 2010, she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio and previously earned her B.A. in sociology at the University of Cincinnati. Her research pursuits are most broadly influenced by a desire to understand how individualized risks affect social stratification; most of her work to date explores the relationship between debt and social class inequality to better understand this relationship. At PLU she teaches several sociology courses including Social Stratification, Major Theories, Consumption, and Introduction to Sociology.