She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, and B.A. in Linguistics from Stanford University, focusing on description of languages of Northern California, Dene languages, and community-based language revitalization. While at Stanford, she also minored and taught classes in Native American studies. She is an enrolled Hoopa Valley Tribal member, with grandparents and great-grandparents also enrolled in the Karuk and Yurok tribes. She is a current board member with the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival (AICLS).