She specializes in psychiatric epidemiology and received her Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Columbia University in 1985. She then did postdoctoral work at the Psychiatric Epidemiology Training program at Columbia, receiving an M.S. in epidemiology in 1988. She is currently the Training Coordinator of the Psychiatric Epidemiology Training Program. Her research focuses on methodological issues, particularly in psychiatric research, and the integration of methods from sociology, genetics, and epidemiology.