A fortuitous meeting with Drs. Lindon Eaves, D.Sc., Nick Martin, and Andrew Heath while working on her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University led to her life-long involvement in the field of behavior genetics. Her initial research interest began with the influence of genetic and environmental factors on pre- and peri-menstrual disorders using data on female twins enrolled in the Australian Twin Registry. She was intrigued by the use of twins for disentangling the role genetic and environmental play in explaining individual differences, an approach that was not yet fully recognized in her field of psychology. Upon completion of her PhD, she worked with Dr. Andrew Heath as a post-doc and also collaborated with Dr. Kenneth Kendler, M.D. on projects involving the links between dysmenorrhea, depression, and anxiety.