Cristina is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Women & Children’s Health at the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at King’s. Her background is in nursing, midwifery, and public health, with over 18 years of clinical, academic, and research experience across both high-income and low- and middle-income countries. She is a PRINCE2 Practitioner and holds a Diploma in Tropical Medicine, an MPH (Dist), and a PhD in Public Health, for which she received the King’s Outstanding Thesis Prize.

Cristina has led and contributed to clinical and applied health research in infectious and tropical diseases, as well as innovations and complex interventions in maternal, child, and adolescent health, with a focus on addressing health challenges and inequities. Her expertise spans clinical trials, observational studies, implementation science, health systems and policy research, evidence synthesis, data science and analysis of routine health data, as well as mixed-methods, qualitative, participatory, and co-produced approaches. Her collaborative work has informed local and international guidelines and policy.

She is a co-founder of the UK Chagas Hub, a network established to address Chagas disease among the Latin American community in the UK. Cristina also teaches within the School, supervises MSc and PhD students, and contributes to national and international funding committees and advisory groups, including WHO. Her interests include community-driven innovation, the responsible use of AI, and research capacity strengthening in maternal, child, and adolescent health.