She received her B.A. degree in Biology from Taylor University in 2001 and her Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Colorado State University in 2008. Her interest in brain development began as a first-year graduate student at Colorado State University where she was influenced by work in the labs of Robert Handa, Ph.D., and Stuart Tobet, Ph.D., that involved looking at the effects of hormones on brain development. She went on to complete her thesis work in the lab of Stuart Tobet, Ph.D., studying the effects of GABA on hypothalamic development. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Biology at an undergraduate university in northwest Iowa where she teaches and oversees a variety of undergraduate research projects investigating brain development.