She teaches courses, advises students, and conducts research on early childhood issues. Her research focuses on effective instruction, social-emotional development and challenging behavior, and translating research to practice. Currently, she is the principal investigator on the Center for the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), and two IES-funded research projects (one focused on the efficacy of implementing the Teaching Pyramid in classrooms, and the second focused on investigating different professional development models for training teachers to use embedded instruction with children with disabilities).