Her career includes 20 years as a licensed professional engineer with Black & Veatch, a global engineering, consulting, and construction company working on information systems and analytics for critical infrastructure industries. While raising five kids and a half-dozen animals, she decided to leave the 8-5 routine and start her own consulting business. She built a business plan and a growing client base, working on innovative projects for regulatory agencies and Fortune 500 companies. She graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1985 and 30 years later, earned a PhD in Computer Science from Kansas State University.