 She simultaneously earned her PhD in Biology from Colorado State University.After receiving her PhD, With sat on the Executive Committee of the Theoretical Ecology Section as a Secretary Officer for the Ecological Society of America from 1995–1997.During this time, her paper ""Critical thresholds in species' responses to landscape structure"" earned her the Award for Outstanding Paper published in the discipline of Landscape Ecology by the U. S. Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology.