Before coming to Rocky Mountain College, Dr. Flanigan taught communication and gender courses at a variety of educational institutions – from small colleges to large state universities. As a professor, she enjoys working closely with students and helping them to be successful in their original research. During her time at Rocky, she became more interested in the nexus between psychology and communication and returned to school to earn an MS in mental health counseling.

Dr. Flanigan has presented a number of conference papers at both the national and regional levels and has given guest lectures and communication workshops to both large and small groups. Her work on online social support was published in the edited volume Cases on Online Discussion and Interaction: Experiences and Outcomes and her work in gender and communication was published in Language and Gender. She was a contributing author to Engaging and Transforming Global Communication Through Cultural Discourse Analysis, which won the Outstanding Scholarly Publication Award from the Language and Social Interaction Division of the National Communication Association. Her current work combines her training as a communication researcher with her work as a counselor—a focus she brings to her advanced interpersonal communication classes.