I am an Associate Professor in Health and Wellbeing Economics in the Department of Global Health and Development, and co-Director of the Global Health Economics Centre.

My main research interest is in understanding the value of health and quality of life, and the measurement of broader outcomes in the evaluation of public health programmes, including capabilities and subjective wellbeing.

I obtained a degree in Economics and Public Administration at Bocconi University in Milan and an MSc in Social Policy and Planning for Developing Countries at LSE, with a dissertation on the international migration of health workers. I completed my PhD at the LSHTM on the development of a multidimensional index based on Sen’s Capability Approach to assess women’s wellbeing in rural Malawi.

I joined the LSHTM in 2006. In 2013-14 I have supported the drafting of the Wellbeing and Policy report of the Legatum Commission chaired by Gus O'Donnell with Angus Deaton, Richard Layard, Martine Durand and David Halpern. In 2021, I worked with the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All, chaired by Mariana Mazzucato, on the development of the 3rd Council Brief on Valuing Health for All and contributing to one Insights on time-use data and one article on women's unpaid care work. 

I was awarded an Early Career Fellowship from the UK Medical Research Council to develop a wellbeing measure for use in economic evaluation of public health programmes. I was Honorary Senior Scientist at the MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit and Visiting Lecturer at the School of Economics, Makerere University, Uganda from 2016 to 2019.

I was a founder and convener of the IHEA Special Interest Group for Early Career Researchers (2016 - 2021) and have been a convener for the SIG on Mental Health Economics since 2022. I am a Fellow and an elected member of the Executive Council of the Human Development & Capabilities Association (HDCA). I am an Associate Editor of the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, and of Social Science & Medicine. 

I supervised Ian Ross for his PhD on measuring and valuing quality of life in sanitation interventions in Mozambique and I am currently supervising 1) Kenneth Katumba, working on the role of structural and behavioural factors for HIV prevention in Uganda; 2) Rebecca Prah, working on the use of novel quality of life measures for assessing adolescent wellbeing and menstrual health in Uganda; and 3) Michaela Takawira, working on the evaluation of a check-up strategy to improve adolescents' wellbeing in Zimbabwe.