She graduated in 1976 from Temple University with a BS in Medical Technology. For the following 33 years, she worked in various positions in clinical laboratories in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. Her most recent positions included manager of Point of Care Testing, Administrative Director of Laboratories, and Program Director of a hospital-based Clinical Laboratory Science Program for a large health care system in Wisconsin. She achieved her Masters Degree in Clinical Microbiology (1980) from Thomas Jefferson University and her doctorate in Higher Education Leadership (2010) from Nova Southeastern University.