She holds a medical degree back from Iran and a Ph.D in Epidemiology from UC Davis. Her research interests are in two main areas; first, quantitative evaluation of the quality of health care system performance specifically patient safety by means of routinely collected administrative data and second, community based participatory research. She was the ministry of health representative in Iran to launch the W.H.O adopted CBPR model of 'community empowerment for sustainable development' in Ardakan, 1999-2001. She is one of the co-investigators in the Niños Sanos, Familia Sana project.