A Vermonter, she earned an MD from the University of Vermont and a MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health before going to the University of Washington for family medicine residency. She was then a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Michigan during which time she conducted a 6-month policy externship at the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation. Following this, she completed a Palliative Medicine fellowship at Mount Sinai. Dr. Ankuda is a health services researcher who aims to assess the impact of payment policies and health systems on outcomes for seriously ill older adults and their families.