Prior to joining LSU, while a professor at Duke University, Daniels-Race built the university’s first molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) laboratory and research program in compound semiconductor epitaxial crystal growth. As a visiting professor at The University of Texas (UT) at Austin, she conducted research on superlattices and multi-layered III-V semiconductor nanostructures at UT's Microelectronics Research Center. Her scientific work spans experimental and computational electronic materials formation, device fabrication, and nanoscale characterization, utilizing atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman and fluorescence spectroscopies, HPC (high-performance computing), and custom-designed instrumentation to examine nanoscale electronic phenomena. Founder of the NEST (Nano Electronic Structures & Technology) Lab, Dr. Race, as she is known to her students, leads a team of graduate and undergraduate researchers who explore nanoscale electro-optical phenomena in hybrid electronic materials to advance next-generation nanoelectronic device technologies.

Daniels-Race is also the principal investigator for a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded grant through which she and her co-PIs in the College of Engineering and the College of Human Sciences & Education (Lutrill & Pearl Payne School of Education) conduct research on undergraduate engineering education.

With an extensive record of service to academia, industry, and government, Daniels-Race has held university appointments to positions such as Provost's Fellow, program director of the School of Collaborative Academic Programs, interim chair of the Learning and Teaching Collaborative, and election to the LSU Faculty Senate. She has served as a member of the Committee of Visitors for both the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy (DOE). For the latter, she was sworn in as a member of the U.S. Department of Energy's Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee and chaired DOE’s subcommittee on the status of research funding in EPSCoR states, of which Louisiana is one. She has been recognized by industry with a Professor of Excellence award from Worley Corporation. Daniels-Race is an ELATES (Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering & Sciences) Fellow.