Banks has been a professor at Purdue since 1997. She was named head of the School of Civil Engineering in August. Her research focus is wastewater treatment and applied biological waste treatment processes.

She has served as principal investigator for many multidisciplinary research grants at Purdue and has received funding from the National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. departments of Defense and Education, and NASA, as well as industry and state government. She served as director of the EPA Midwest Hazardous Substance Research Center, as associate director of the NASA Center for Advanced Life Support and as co-director of the 21st Century Center for phytoremediation research.

Banks is the author or co-author of more than 100 journal articles, proceedings papers, book chapters and reports. She serves as editor-in-chief for the American Society for Civil Engineers Journal of Environmental Engineering and as associate editor of the International Journal of Phytoremediation.

She received her bachelor's degree in environmental engineering from the University of Florida in 1982, a master's degree in water resources engineering from the University of North Carolina in 1985, and a doctoral degree in civil and environmental engineering from Duke University in 1989. She is a licensed professional civil engineer in Indiana and Kansas and has received numerous awards.