[1][2][3] She is a former deputy director of the Argonne National Laboratory,[4] and professor emerita of geological engineering at Montana Technological University, where she was vice-chancellor for research and dean of the graduate school before retiring.
[6][7] After her father moved to the University of California, Berkeley, she grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.
[1][6][4] She completed a Ph.D. in geophysics in 1978 at the University of Washington;[6][4] her dissertation research involved thermal convection in the oceanic crust.
She then worked for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 1982 to 1985, and the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility from 1985 to 1996, where she eventually became associate director and project manager.
[3] Hartline was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2000, after a nomination from the APS Forum on Education, "for creative leadership and drive to advance physics and other science education at all levels from kindergarten to graduate school, including outreach to teachers and the general public".