Richardson graduated with Special Academic Honors (sigma cum laude) at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls (UWRF) with a B.S.

[1] Richardson was on the steering committee, was a scientific-PI, and was co-coordinator of mobile mesonets for VORTEX2.

[2] She previously collaborated in other field projects, including PAMREX,[3] (2003–2004), IHOP[4] (2002), ROTATE[5] (2000, 2001, 2004), and VORTEX1[6] (1994–1995).

She co-authored the textbook, Mesoscale Meteorology in Midlatitudes, with Paul Markowski with whom she also wrote a major Weatherwise magazine article, "How to Make a Tornado".

Richardson is a co-writer of a rebuttal to a New York Times opinion piece by physicist Richard A. Muller, challenging his contention that tornadic activity had decreased in the U.S. and his tying the alleged decline to global warming.