She holds a Masters’ in Public Health, with an international focus, from the University of Hawaii and a Ph.D. in Nursing, with an emphasis in community health, from the University of California, San Francisco. She has spent a significant portion of her life working, living and researching in Africa and Asia and her research interests reflect a strong commitment to global health issues. She is an expert in qualitative research and conducts both qualitative and mixed methods research with vulnerable communities in the United States and internationally, most recently focusing on HIV issues. She currently is exploring how Malawi Christian and Muslim religious leaders’ messages about HIV impact members’ HIV stigma, risk behaviors and caring for people living with HIV and is developing an HIV prevention intervention to be delivered through mosques in Malawi.