Cavender earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Delaware and master’s and doctoral degrees in genetics from Pennsylvania State University. She joined the faculty at Elizabethtown in 1993.

Cavender’s research, an outgrowth of work that she began at Penn State, involves the Simian Virus 40 (SV40) tumor virus; she particularly focuses on the SV40 large and small tumor antigens and investigates what part these viral proteins play in producing tumors. Her studies have been funded by $75,000 and $100,000 grants from the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute. Cavender has published two manuscripts on her work in the international Journal of Virology and has presented at two international DNA Tumor Virus Meetings.

Cavender also serves as director of Elizabethtown’s biotechnology major and as a visiting postdoctoral fellow at Penn State’s Hershey Medical Center.