Her B.Sc is from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver Canada. She received her Ph.D. in Entomology from Rutgers in 2008 after which she completed two years at the American Museum of Natural History as an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow. She has received several awards including the Entomological Societys Comstock Award and Snodgrass Memorial Award and Rutgers Compton Markle Award. She is currently on the Editorial Board for Organismal Diversity and Evolution as well as the International Journal of Odonatology. She currently has published a dozen peer reviewed manuscripts and has served as a reviewer for Systematic Entomology, International Journal of Odonatology, Cladistics Zootaxa Royal Biological Linnaean Society, Journal of Insect Science Geobios, Entomologica Americana Organismal Diversity and Evolution and Southeastern Naturalist Guest Editorship.