Previously she was a Ciriacy-Wantrup postdoctoral fellow in the department of geography at the University of California at Berkeley. She earned her PhD in cultural anthropology from Duke University in 2012. She is currently working on two book manuscripts, one of which takes a historical and ethnographic perspective to questions of how armed actors in eastern Central African Republic (C.A.R.) make claims to livelihoods and authority, and the other of which focuses on the "crisis" the country has faced since the end of 2012. She first conducted research in C.A.R. three months after former President Bozizé's coup in 2003. Since then she has worked in C.A.R. as a field consultant to several international organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Small Arms Survey, Refugees International, and the World Bank, in addition to her academic research.