She is a Co-Investigator on the Health and Retirement Study, a long-running longitudinal study of health and economic dynamics at older ages. Her research interests include the causes and consequences of lacking health insurance, evaluation of public health insurance programs, and the role of health literacy in explaining disparities in health outcomes. Before coming to the University of Michigan she was an Assistant Professor at the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. She is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and served as a Senior Economist to the President's Council of Economic Advisers in 2010-11. She received a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton.