Her research is in the area of developmental neuropsychology and focuses on the neural bases, and long-term outcomes, of neurodevelopmental disorders. She was born in Victoria, BC Canada, and received her BSc at the University of Victoria. She received her MSc and PhD (1998) at the University of Calgary and went on to become a research fellow with the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (DMHDS). She became a member of the University of Auckland academic faculty in 2001. She is a Principal Investigator with the Centre for Brain Research, Minds for Minds, the Movincog.org initiative, Growing Up in New Zealand, and the Auckland Comorbidity Study. Her H-Index is 24 and her research has received 1909 citations according to Google Scholar.