With an undergraduate degree in communication, Cyphert began a career in public relations and advertising, moving on to an M.A. in Rhetoric at the University of California, specializing in corporate advocacy. After fifteen years in management and consulting experience, she resumed an academic career with a PhD in the highly-regarded Speech Communication program at Penn State. Specializing in cross-cultural rhetorical theory, Cyphert's research focuses primarily on variations in decision-making norms across socio-economic levels.  Current projects include the definition and development of communication competence in business organizations and  the contrasting rhetorical norms surfaced by rural economic development efforts.

Cyphert currently teaches in the Department of Management, offering courses in organizational management, business communication, communication management and a varity of communication topics in the College's MBA program. She frequently offers short courses to business clients through UNI's Executive Development Center.

Cyphert is a member of the National Communication Association and the American Communication Association and serves on the Board of directors of the Association for Business Communication. Cyphert's publications include articles in The Quarterly Journal of Speech, Text and Performance Quarterly, The American Communication Journal, The Journal of Business Communication , and The Western Journal of Communication, as well as ERIC documents, instructional supplements for South-Western College Publishing, and various business magazines. She has presented more than thirty papers at regional and national conventions as well as programs for media and community audiences, and chapters in such works as Who Says?: Working-Class Rhetoric, Class Consciousness, and Community and Included in Communication: Learning Climates that Cultivate Racial and Ethnic Diversity.