She is a Northern California native and attended UC Davis for her undergraduate work, before moving on to UC San Francisco for medical school. Between medical school and residency, she obtained an M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she focused on medical and broadcast journalism. She completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Kaiser Permanente, Oakland and completed a fellowship in Family Planning at Stanford University. In the past she has worked with the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project and the ABC News Medical Unit headquarters in New York. Her research interests include contraceptive access and the integration of media with reproductive health.