She was a graduate student in Microbial Ecology, 1975, and doctoral student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1979, at USU. She worked at Johnson Space Center in Houston from 1980-1991, during which time she was chosen to go into space for the STS 61-B mission in 1985 and the STS-30 mission in 1989. She is currently (2003) serving as the Deputy Associate Administrator of Advanced Planning in the Office of Earth Science at NASA Headquarters.