My background is interdisciplinary: after graduating with a BSc in Medical Microbiology (The University of Edinburgh), I completed a dPhil in HIV Immunology (The University of Oxford), and then a MSc in Epidemiology (The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine).

I joined LSHTM in 2008 and have worked on the evaluation of large-scale public health interventions with female sex workers and adolescent girls in south India, including two cluster-RCTs funded by DFID and the MRC-SA. I am particularly interested in understanding the structural drivers of HIV risk, including violence, mental health, and alcohol use problems. I have also worked on the prevention of child marriage and secondary school drop-out among adolescent girls.

My most recent study (Maisha Fiti) in Nairobi, Kenya, is funded by the Medical Research Council and DFID. This longitudinal study with 1000 women aimed to understand the immunological pathways linking violence experience to HIV risk and disease progession.