She obtained her undergraduate degree at Cornell University and graduate degrees at the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked on a range of projects previously but her overarching academic goals are first, to examine technical topics relating to Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and second, to promote multidisciplinary and global approaches to engineering using innovative knowledge dissemination tools and information technology. Her research team uses centrifuge and numerical modeling to study the interactions and interdependencies among different infrastructure systems during earthquakes and other types of disasters; the seismic performance of underground structures; and consequences and mitigation of the liquefaction hazard.