She holds a B.A. at DePauw University (1961), and an M.A. (1964) and Ph.D. (1969) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She joined the History Department at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1969 where she taught Latin American History until her retirement in May 2010. She is Professor Emerita and a specialist in Colombian history who has authored of several books. Her most recent publication is Santiago Pérez Triana (1858-1916): Colombian Man of Letters and Crusader for Hemispheric Unity (2017).
