She received her PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California. Her research has been focused on risk analysis of human and organizational factors, along with technical elements, in complex safety-critical and technology-intensive industries, such as offshore drilling and healthcare. She has been able to present and publish papers in the areas of risk assessment and safety management, accident investigation, and interoperability analysis of multiple emergency response agencies in different peer-reviewed conferences and journals both in the context of oil and gas industry and healthcare settings.