Marrubio received her B.F.A in photography from the Cleveland Institute of Art. She worked as a photographer in Cleveland before moving to Tucson to study American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona. She then combined her M.A. in Native American Literature with her passion for art by pursuing a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies with a focus on the issues of race in film and media. Her scholarship to date analyzes the representation of Native Americans in American popular culture and Hollywood cinema.