Mustillo's research interests include health, statistics, children and youth, social psychology, gender and family.
[1] Upon graduating magna cum laude from Notre Dame in 1996, Mustillo enrolled at Duke University for her master's degree and PhD in sociology.
[6] At Purdue, Mustillo published a study which found that weight loss did not correlate to better self-esteem in white and black girls.
[8] In 2013 she was named a University Faculty Scholar and won a fellowship from the Center for Undergraduate Instructional Excellence to allow her to research her project "Revealing the Power of Data.
"[9] The following year, Mustillo was promoted to the rank of Full professor and left Purdue for the Sociology department at the University of Notre Dame.