Verena Carrara graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and followed a postgraduate training in Internal Medicine (FMH). Her interest in tropical infectious diseases led her to obtain a diploma in tropical medicine from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium and a Master in Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Her experience combines humanitarian work, epidemiological, operational, and clinical research in multidisciplinary teams and in multilingual, multicultural contexts in low and middle income countries. Her first assignment abroad was in rural Cambodia for Médecins Sans Frontières as a clinical advisor for medical doctors, and as manager of two MSF-led STD clinics. She then coordinated activities to develop the first active surveillance system for wild poliovirus in Gabon. She returned in Southeast Asia, on the Thai-Myanmar border to work for the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, a field station from the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Research Unit where she completed her Ph.D. work on malaria epidemiology. In 2020, she joined the Institute of Global Health in Geneva and since September 2021, she has integrated the MAS in Public health as program coordinator.

Her research interests include infectious diseases epidemiology, maternal and child health, particularly the role of maternal infections and nutritional status to the birth outcome, and the child growth and neurocognitive development in early childhood.