She graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology, then came to UCLA for medical school. She completed a Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She returned to UCLA to complete a National Research Service Award (NRSA) Primary Care Health Services Research fellowship and obtained her PhD in educational psychology from the UCLA Graduate School of Education. Her dissertation examined the parental factors influencing child care selection in a survey of 4800 parents in California. She is currently the Program Director of two residency programs at UCLA: the Community Health and Advocacy Training (CHAT) Program and the Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency Program.