She is currently a Senior Strategic Analysis Advisor - FAO. She was Principal Investigator of the Institute of Peruvian Studies. Between 2011 and 2013 she was Minister of Development and Social Inclusion of Peru.
In 1991, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in Social Sciences with a major in Economics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. She also has a master's degree in Agricultural Economics from the Pennsylvania State University, United States, where she studied between 1994 and 1996 thanks to a USAID scholarship.
In 1990, she began her professional life as an intern at the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP), where she became Principal Investigator. She was a member of the IEP board of directors for fourteen years, four of which she served as General Director (2001-2005). In the IEP, she led an important process of institutional change, which prioritized research on rural development and the financial inclusion of women and low-income residents. She has been a consultant for national and international organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, the FAO, among others.
In the public sector, she has been a member of the Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture (2002-2004) and of the Ministry of Women and Social Development (2009). Likewise, she was a member of the commission for the implementation of the National Rural Development Strategy, of the Technical Secretariat of the Interministerial Commission of Social Affairs (CIAS) of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, and member of the Technical Advisory Committee on Poverty Measurement, of the INEI. She was also President of the Board of Directors of the Permanent Seminar on Agrarian Research (SEPIA) and President of the Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN). She is also the author of various national and international studies on Rural Development and Overcoming Poverty and has taught at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and at the Universidad del Pacífico.