She obtained her PhD in grassland management at University of California–Berkeley. She has been involved in environmental conservation efforts on the Tibetan plateau. Her research investigates interactions among climate, land use, and the structure and function of grassland, shrubland, and alpine ecosystems. She employs a suite of research tools, including experimental manipulations, space-for-time sampling, and ecosystem modeling. Her work considers multiple scales, from species-level investigations to landscape-scale processes. She works across disciplines to understand the complex dynamics of the coupled human-environment system in rangeland regions of the world.