She received her BSc degree in biology from Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, in 1986, her MSc degree in genetics from the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, in 1990, and her PhD degree in biochemistry from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, in 1995. It was in Dr. Gordon Shore's laboratory at McGill University that she became interested in apoptosis and identified that stress stimulus induced Bax targeting to mitochondria. Dr. Goping went on to study cytotoxic T cell-mediated cell death as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Chris Bleackley and elucidated key steps for granzyme B-induced apoptosis. Dr. Goping joined the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta where her group investigates the interplay between apoptosis and cancer cell survival.