Before coming to the University of Texas at Austin to complete her doctoral program in Health Promotion, Spaulding served in a number of positions at the Texas Department of Health (now State Health Services). As Deputy Commissioner for Programs, she had planning and implementation oversight responsibility for all of the state’s public health programs and services. She served on the Management Committee of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, and worked with representatives of state and local health departments to assist the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in developing the preliminary certification standards for state and local health agencies. She completed her Ph.D. following her retirement from the state health department, and served for four years as the Director of Program Evaluation of the Institute for Obesity Prevention and Program Evaluation at Texas A&M University. She serves as a member of the Scientific Committee for the Health Start program in Austin, and has research interests in children’s media use, nutrition, and physical activity. She has been teaching classes at U.T. since 2013.