For Moncrief, research helped give language to issues she was passionate about exploring. She published a brief summary article with Graham and two other Madison students, Maren Nicolaysen and Eleanor Pugh. Early in her time at JMC, Lee had imagined pursuing a career path in national security or intelligence. Upper-level JMC students working as research assistants encouraged her to pursue opportunities by reaching out to professors whose work interested her. Louise Jezierski and Sejuti Das Gupta and fellow Madison students Saumya Johri and Faith Greenwood during the University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum, or UURAF.