As a graduate student in the M.F.A. program at the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst, she studied the chemistry of glazing under one of the leading experts in the country, Prof. Susan Parks. During graduate school, she received a Ford Foundation Grant and in later years went on to teach ceramics on the faculty of Skidmore College and Pratt Art Institute, where she headed the Ceramics M.F.A. program for four years. Following this period of teaching, she started an independent studio ceramics business in Soho, New York, in partnership with John O’Hara. From this studio, the colorful and functional ceramics were sold all over the country, Europe, and Japan through fine shops, department stores, and galleries. Besides receiving praise from publications such as· The New York Times, The New Yorker, Metropolitan Home, Architectural Digest, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, Stiles won the prestigious ROSCOE Award for Excellence in Design, in competition with Ralph Lauren and Marimekko In 2008, Stiles opened a new production studio with John O’Hara in Wellfleet on Cape Cod in the building where her great-grandmother, Mary Newcomb, was born.