She is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and trained in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston and Boston Medical Center. She has led projects with the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Australia; the World Health Organization in Malawi; and the Society for Education, Action, and Research in Community Health in India. After the 2004 tsunami, she consulted for the International Organization for Migration to improve the quality of care for displaced persons in Indonesia.