During graduate school, Dr. Garner worked as a financial economist at The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. After receiving her Ph.D., she joined the staff of The University of Rhode Island. She has held teaching appointments at The University of Delaware and Georgia State University. In 2007 she taught at Korea University in Seoul, Korea. From 2002 to 2012, she was at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, and received tenure in 2007. Her most recent appointment was at Mississippi State University, from 2012 to 2016. She served as the Edie and Nutie Dowdle Professor of Finance.
She has published in numerous academic journals such as The Journal of Finance, The Journal of Business, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, and Financial Management, among others. From 1999 - 2007, she regularly contributed to The Wall Street Journal Finance Educators™ Review. Her research focuses on corporate finance; more specifically she studies issues related to initial public offerings, corporate governance, and investment bank compensation. In April of 2014 she was awarded the College of Business Research Award at Mississippi State University.
Dr. Garner has won several teaching awards. On two occasions, the Lead MBA class at Drexel University has voted her Favorite Professor, and she was a fellow in The LeBow College of Business (Drexel University) Center for Teaching Excellence. In 2010, she won the prestigious Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award, a Drexel University wide award for excellence in teaching. In April of 2014 she was awarded the Mississippi State University College of Business Research Award and was also voted “Favorite Finance Professor by the students.
She has served on the board of Southern Finance Association and served as the VP-Financial Education for Financial Management Association as well as President and VP-Program for Eastern Finance Association. She is currently a trustee for Eastern Finance Association. She serves as the Executive Editor of FMA-Online and is the Associate Editor (or serves on the Editorial Board) for five journals: Financial Review, International Review of Financial Analysis, Journal of Undergraduate Research in Finance, Journal of Applied Finance, and Journal of Risk Finance.