That may be the case at a community college but at a research university, associate is a tenured position and not attained merely by a number of years at the assistant level.
Penn State is a highly rated research university. Getting tenure there wouldn’t be considered easy.
She’s written a number of scholarly articles and books which justify her academic position, for example...
“Alienation Incorporated: ‘F*** the Mainstream Music’ in the Mainstream.”
“Muscles, Motorcycles, and Tattoos: Gentrification in a New Frontier.”
“Inside Shock Music Carnival: Spectacle as Contested Terrain.”
“Heavy Metal Carnival and Dis-alienation: The Politics of Grotesque Realism.”
Recommended reading.