Risa holds a master's degree in development studies from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam. Prior to that, she obtained a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Sociology, Universitas Indonesia.

Risa is a qualitative researcher for the Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) Programme in Indonesia. During her initial years of joining RISE, she led an ethnographic study aimed at understanding the sociocultural aspects of district educational innovations in the decentralized education system of Indonesia. Subsequently, Risa and her team further studied the district educational innovations using a political economy analysis. Apart from that, Risa has been involved in other studies, such as the diffusion mechanism of district educational innovations, teacher training using the High-Touch High-Tech approach, and zoning policy. Her research interests lie in the areas of decentralization and development, sociology of education, and public policy.

Before pursuing her master’s degree, Risa worked at LabSosio, Center for Sociological Studies, Universitas Indonesia. She was involved in various social research projects with a number of institutions, such as the Center for Social Well-Being Studies, Senshu University; Communication Research Center (Puskakom), Universitas Indonesia; and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Task Force.

In 2012, Risa was selected to be a youth delegate of the East Asian Seas (EAS) Congress in South Korea and was granted a full scholarship to participate in the event. In the following year, Risa also received a student research grant and completed The University of Tokyo Summer Internship Program (UTSIP) at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo.