She was born in North Dakota and was raised in Colorado. She received the bachelor's degree in biology from Colorado State University, a master's degree in zoology from the University of California at Davis, and her doctorate in zoology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Peter Devreotes in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, followed by appointment as a Senior Staff Fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the laboratory of Michael J. Kuhar.