Uli obtained her master’s degree in communication from Universitas Indonesia and bachelor’s degree in horticulture (now agronomy and horticulture) from Bogor Agricultural University (now IPB University).

As a qualitative researcher, Uli is interested in researching children and family, minority groups, health, and cultural studies. She has experience in conducting research on education, poverty, economic development, governance, and health. As a senior researcher, Uli's role is to carry out all stages of the research, starting from preparation (drafting a research proposal as well as designing the research), data collection (designing research instruments, preparing coding and analysis frameworks, and organizing the data collection process), analysis, report and policy recommendation writing, to policy engagement efforts with relevant stakeholders. In addition, Uli and several other qualitative researchers are currently developing a curriculum to improve the knowledge and skills of SMERU's qualitative researchers.

Uli is also part of the RISE Programme in Indonesia team, where she led the qualitative analyses of a study on pre-service teacher education program and a longitudinal study that followed the journey of beginning teachers in Indonesia. To date, the latter is the single research on education in Indonesia that documents the development of teachers from the teachers’ perspective.

Before joining SMERU in 2015, Uli worked as a consultant at the Center for International Forestry Research (2012–2013), as well as a reporting staff member in a project managed by the Ministry of Forestry and the Indonesia Climate Change Trust Fund (ICCTF).