She went to the University of Michigan for graduate study in sociology, earning a master's degree and Ph.D.
[1] She was a postdoctoral researcher in epidemiology at Yale University before joining the National Center for Health Statistics,[3][4] where she became associate director in 1996.
[4] She has also been affiliated with Georgetown University as adjunct faculty in biostatistics and epidemiology and in demography.
[2] She served as acting director of the National Center for Health Statistics from 2018 to 2020,[5] before retiring in 2021.
[10] In 2016, the Population Association of America gave her their Excellence in Public Service Award.