Her research interests include educational measurement and educational policy. In higher education, she has researched admissions to selective institutions both in Chile and in the United States, college-going decision making, persistence and the impact of financial aid on educational outcomes. Her work has been published by specialized journals such as Harvard Educational Review, Higher Education and Higher Education Policy. She received her PhD in Education from University of California Berkeley in 2007, a Masters in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy also at Berkeley in 2001, and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a minor in Sociology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in 1997.