She received her BS in Biology from Washington State University and earned her medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin. She completed her Neurology residency at University of Virginia where she was chief resident. After residency, she was Medical Director of Air Force Services for Exceptional Children, Adult & Pediatric Neurology in Naples, Italy. She then returned to the U.S. and completed two fellowships one year in stroke at Stanford University and one in Neurocritical Care at UC San Francisco. She began her career with University of Utah in 2000.