She served as director of research and training at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ann Arbor for 25 years and was president of the American Psychiatric Association from 1990 to 1991.
[3] She chose to specialize in psychiatry since it was one of the few specialties open to women physicians in that era, and would also allow the flexibility of maintaining a medical practice while raising a family.
[5] After finishing her residency, she began working as a psychiatrist at the York Wood Center, a residential treatment facility for youth in Ypsilanti.
[3][5] During her tenure, she helped formulate a forensic fellowship program which later became a joint venture with the University of Michigan.
[5] In 1975 she performed a preliminary evaluation of as-yet uncharged serial killer Coral Watts at the center.
[7] She maintains a private practice in Ann Arbor for child, adolescent, adult, and forensic psychiatry.
[5] She is regarded as an expert on child abuse and trauma, and also focuses on ethics, the psychiatric aspects of disasters and terrorism, and domestic violence.
In 1975 she testified for the defense in the murder trial of Ruth Childers, advancing the psychological theory of battered woman's syndrome first developed by Lenore E.