She graduated in May 2017 from Harvard University with a PhD from the Political Economy and Government program and from Middlebury College in 2007 with a BA in Economics and Political Science. Her research interests are at the intersection of development economics, political economy, and economic history. Her recent work is in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where she examines the effects of historical extraction on present day local institutions and culture and how kinship structure affects outcomes for women and children. Other work on Central Africa examines how colonial experiences affect present day trust in modern medicine