While studying at the University of British Columbia (UBC), she spent a year abroad in Santiago, Chile, and also was a teacher of human rights and health education near Guatemala City for a period of four months. She graduated from UBC with a B.A. in Latin American Studies and Fine Arts. She pursued her graduate degree in public administration at Columbia University, specializing in immigration policy and human rights, earning her degree in 2004. Concurrent with her degree program, she contracted as a researcher in the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and worked for a year as the Youth Landmine Ambassador in Toronto for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs. She went on to work in the areas of public policy, immigration policy, and human rights for the United Nations and NGOs, including work as a consultant at the United Nations Development Programme in Costa Rica. She also interned at Greyston Bakery in Yonkers, New York, which bases its operating model on social justice.
