Prior to becoming staff at IAFN she practiced as a registered nurse for 41 years at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. For the last 28 of those years she was a pediatric nurse practitioner with the child abuse program where she was a medical provider in a hospital based child advocacy center, primary care provider in a primary care clinic for children in foster care, consultant for children admitted to the hospital for physical abuse concerns, and coordinated a pediatric sexual assault nurse examiner program in the emergency department. She has published over 40 research and review articles in peer-reviewed journals as well as 10 book chapters. All of her published works have discussed various topics related to child maltreatment.