Cecile holds a PhD in International Political Studies from the University of New South Wales - ADFA in Canberra. 

Her main research interests include democratisation, state-building and ethnic politics in Myanmar. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked with Burmese grassroots organisations in Thailand and in Myanmar for eight years.

As a visiting fellow and Myanmar Research Center affiliate, Cecile has been co-convening the MRC Dialogue series since 2022 and she is the lead convenor of the 2023 Myanmar Update conference. She is also a postdoctoral researcher at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies and the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.