She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in the Department of Sociology where she focused on demography and health. She previously worked in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on surveillance systems and program evaluation relevant to children with special health care needs. Dr. Kuhlthau currently conducts research on children with special health care needs and children with autism. The autism-related work includes studies of quality of life of children and parents, traditional health services research, policy studies, and studies or the transition to the adult health care system. She is currently a co-PI of the Autism Intervention Research Network on Physical Health (AIR-P).