She received her Intensive BS in Psychobiology from Yale University with high honors and her MD from the University of California, San Francisco. She stayed at UCSF for her residency in Neurology, where she served as a chief resident in her final year. She completed a two-year fellowship in Epilepsy at UCSF and continued on as faculty in 2010. She also completed the Teaching Scholars Program in 2010, a faculty development fellowship for medical educators.