She received her PhD from UC Berkeley in 2002. She works on the measure of unsafe abortion, alternative forms of contraception in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the social determinants of fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. She helped implement the Ouagadougou Health and Demographic Surveillance System from 2008 to 2013. Today, she coordinates the INDEPTH Working Group on fertility and Sexual and Reproductive Health as well as the research group on family configurations in the Swiss National Centre of Competence LIVES, and collaborates with WHO.