She earned her B.A. in English Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, her M.A. in Educational Psychology from Cornell University, her Ph.D. in Developmental and Experimental Psychology from The George Washington University. Since 1989, she has served as the NICHD scientific coordinator and one of the primary investigators of a collaborative longitudinal research project on the development of social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic and health development of children from birth through fifth grade (The NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development).