She is the U. S. Steel Dean of the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.
[2] After working at NASA and General Motors, she returned to academia and to the University of Florida in 2008, taking a position as an assistant professor.
She became chair of the University of Florida's Department of Materials Science and Engineering in 2017, "the first woman and person of color to hold the position".
[2] In 2021 she was a recipient of the Brimacombe Medal of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society "for significant contributions in the integration of systems-based materials design approaches to light metals and her meaningful service to the profession".
[5] In 2022 she was named to the National Academy of Engineering,[2] "for contributions to research, implementation, and teaching of computational materials design of biomimetic self-healing metals and high-performance lightweight alloys".