She is trained in both medical anthropology and epidemiology, receiving both a PhD and MPH from Emory University. Her interests lie at the intersections of culture and health, technology and the natural environment, and the application of qualitative and quantitative methods. She conducted community action research for seven years in the northern pharmaceutical corridor of Puerto Rico, published in the monograph The Drug Company Next Door: Pollution, Jobs, and Community Health in Puerto Rico (NYU Press, 2013), winner of the Julian Steward award for the best book in environmental anthropology in 2015.