Arenas received her DVM from the University of La Salle in Colombia in 2002 and her PhD in veterinary microbiology from Texas A&M University in 2007 in the laboratory of Drs. Thomas and Allison Ficht. Her research focused on the development of Brucella vaccines for human and animal use. From 2007 to 2010 she completed her residency in veterinary anatomic pathology at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University. She received her DACVP in veterinary anatomic pathology from the American College of Veterinary Pathology in 2010. Before joining the Texas A&M faculty in 2011 she was an assistant research scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Allison Ficht at the Texas A&M Health Science Center from 2007-2011.