She received her PhD in Public Health from Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to working in academia, she was an epidemiologist at Public Health - Seattle & King County, where she worked on many community based participatory research projects. Her book, Tainted Earth: Smelters, Public Health and the Environment (2014) was published by Rutgers University Press. She has published numerous peer-reviewed papers on occupational and environmental health and community based participatory research.