She received her Bachelor’s Degree from Wheeling Jesuit University where she was awarded the Reverend Frank Haig Science Award for her undergraduate thesis. Her Master’s Degree in Experimental Psychology was awarded from the University of Dayton in 2001. She then pursued a position to teach for the evening division of the Human Factors Psychology program at Methodist College in Fayetteville, NC. She received her PhD. in 2008 in Human Factors Psychology from Wright State University where she studied the interaction of affect and fatigue on cognitive performance.