From 1948 to 1950, Ford was on the staff of the Public Health Nursing Service in Boulder, Colorado. In 1951 she joined the Boulder City-County Health Department, of which she was nursing director from 1956 to 1958. In 1955 Ford was appointed assistant professor at the University of Colorado School of Nursing in Denver. She became professor in 1965. In 1961 she received her doctorate in education from the University of Colorado.