Cristina is a Senior Research Fellow  at King's with over eighteen years of experience in clinical and applied health research across a wide range of international settings. She is a registered nurse and midwife and holds a Diploma in Tropical Medicine, a Master of Public Health (MPH), and a PhD in Public Health.

Cristina has led and contributed to numerous hybrid implementation-effectiveness trials of complex interventions in maternal, child, and adolescent health, as well as mixed-methods research aimed at addressing global health challenges and inequities, such as the 2YoungLives programme in Sierra Leone. She is one of the co-founders of the UK Chagas Hub, a network to tackle Chagas disease among the Latin American community in the UK.

Cristina also teaches in the School, supervises MSc and PhD students, and participates in national/international funding committees and advisory groups. She is a member of the WHO Human Reproduction Programme (HRP) Scientific and Technical Advisory Group (STAG) and passionate about hybrid trials, community-based interventions, and research capacity exchange in global health.