[2][3] She completed her Ph.D. in 1991 at the University of Virginia; her dissertation, The Coordination of a Hexagonal-Barbilian Plane by a Quadratic Jordan Algebra, was supervised by John Faulkner.
[6][7] She was Claire Booth Luce assistant professor at Trinity Washington University from 1991 to 1994,[8] before joining the Randolph–Macon College faculty in 1994.
[3] The Maryland-District of Columbia-Virginia Section of the Mathematical Association of America gave her their Sister Helen Christensen Service Award in 2019.
[11] Torrence won the 2007 Trevor Evans Award of the Mathematical Association of America for a paper she wrote with Adrian Rice on Dodgson condensation:[8] Her books include: A sculpture, "Sunshine", by Torrence is displayed in a Randolph–Macon College building lobby; it depicts the compound of five tetrahedra as five interlocked aluminum shapes, inspired by an origami version of the same compound folded by Tom Hull.
[10] She also won the "Best in Show" award in a 2015 juried mathematical art exhibit, for her pieces titled "Day" and "Night", mathematical origami using folded cardstock rhombi to make hyperbolic paraboloid surfaces, connected in the pattern of a rhombic dodecahedron:[3]