She has an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from Auburn University and a PhD in Sociology from Duke University, and experience working in business (7 years as an aquaculture economist for an integrated shrimp farming company in Ecuador), government (6 years as an aquaculture economist for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture), and academic settings (5 years as an instructor in economics, ethics, sociology, and research methods; 10 years as a project manager). She leads CEFS Building Local Food Value Chains strategic working group which seeks to strengthen the economic viability of small and mid-scale food producers through research activities and engagement with business entities across the food value chain. She manages the North Carolina Growing Together project (NCGT, ncgrowingtogether.org), a 5-year (2013-2017) USDA-funded initiative to link small and mid-scale producers of produce, meat, dairy, and seafood into grocery and food service supply chains; is PI and project manager on UFoods, a 2-year (2016-2017) initiative to integrate agriculture into university campus communities; and she advises CEFS on project planning and evaluation across their food system initiatives.