Cally holds a PhD in Economics from UCT. She has previously worked as a Lecturer in the Department of Statistical Sciences at UCT, as a Structured Debt and Equity Solutions Specialist at African Harvest Capital and as a Market Risk Analyst at NatWest Markets, London. She has extensive experience in the design, management and micro-econometric analysis of social surveys. She has published work on racial inequities in education, orphanhood and schooling, pensions and labour supply, access to financial services and technical aspects of the analysis of survey data.