Poonam is Professor at the Central Institute of Education, Delhi University and advisor to the Indian government on issues related to education quality.

As Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, Jesus and Mary College, the University of Delhi between 1980 and 1990 taught under-graduate courses in Psychology, supervised and guided research projects; Served as Assistant Professor in Zakir Hussain Centre for Educational Studies, School of social sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University between 1990 and 1991- engaged in teaching and research guidance for the Centre’s MPhil-PhD programme; joined the Maulana Azad Centre for Elementary and Social Education at the Central Institute of Education (CIE), the University of Delhi as Associate Professor in 1991- taught Post-graduate courses, supervised research, undertook school intervention; served as Professor since 1999, engaged in post-graduate teaching, research supervision and guidance, research and intervention.