P.F. is originally from eastern Oklahoma, but escaped "Tornado Alley" to live most of her life in California and Arizona. In 1993 she retired from a career in finance and returned to ASU to complete her degrees in Religious Studies. She began working at ASU in 1998 as an academic advisor and occasional instructor, teaching courses on ritual theory, myth, American religious traditions, and religion in pop culture. P.F. has worked as an academic advisor for the Department of Religious Studies and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. From 2010 to 2013 she served as assistant director of advising for the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies. She has held positions in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences twice, as Assistant Director of Academic Services from 2004 to 2007 and as Senior Director of Academic Services since 2013, focusing on student affairs and curriculum planning. Her extracurricular obsessions include a wide variety of cuisines and music, Asian and religious art and artifacts, theatre, and sports, especially college football and Phoenix Mercury basketball.
Introduction of non-western religions to the United States, especially Buddhism and Vodou. Relationship between religion and identity and the use of non-western religious traditions to renegotiate identity in the American spiritual marketplace. Liminal properties of ritual and creative ritualization.