She is currently the Program Manager for Feather Identification Lab in the Division of Birds at the National Museum of Natural History.
She earned a work-study grant in the zoological museum as a curatorial assistant where she learned to work in research collections and skin birds.
After earning her degree, she worked in a cancer research lab for a few years in Maryland before finding a job at the Natural History Museum.
There she became an apprentice to Roxie Laybourne, assisting with her work on the identification of bird species from the microscopic characteristics of downy feathers.
In addition to her position as a technician and her work with Roxie Laybourne, Dove enrolled in George Mason University in 1989 to pursue a master's program.
[1] Dove later re-enrolled at George Mason University to continue her education, completing her PhD in environmental science and public policy for her dissertation on the microscopic characters of Charadriiformes (a type of shorebird) in 1998.
Around 2013, her help was requested to identify what bird species were being eaten by giant Burmese pythons living in the Florida Everglades.