She received her B.S. in Physics from Bucharest University, Romania, her B.A. in Economic Sciences from Constantin Brancusi University, Romania and her Ph.D. in Ecological Economics from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA. She is associate researcher at the Romanian Institute for Economic Forecasting. Her research interests are in the fields of Ecological Economics, Economic and Sustainable Development, Welfare Economics, and Transitional Economies. She works to link these areas of interest together by examining the relationship between sustainable development and local community involvement using the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal Metabolism (MSIASM) approach. She has published several papers on energy efficiency, on community supported agriculture, and on her Nigeria research.