Prior to co-founding Kerus, Dr. Ball was a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where she coordinated the Office of Substance Abuse Prevention Education and the International Health Concentration. She taught a variety of health education courses and developed academic service-learning health courses taught in Honduras and Haiti. Dr. Ball has 11 years of experience in higher education and has written and directed numerous state and federal grant projects related to the prevention of youth risk behavior.