She completed her Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of North Carolina in 2014 and her B.A. in anthropology and philosophy at Beloit College in 2005. Her research focuses on prehistoric American Indian communities in the Lower Mississippi Valley, where she has been conducting excavations since 2006. This focus on the Native communities living along the Mississippi River developed during her childhood in St. Louis, Missouri and she has since worked on archaeological projects in Wisconsin, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, Peru, and of course, throughout Mississippi, where her current research is focused. Since arriving at Penn in 2014, she has been directing the Smith Creek Archaeological Project and she recently curated an exhibit entitled Moundbuilders: Ancient Architects of North America.