Odoms-Young earned a B.S. degree in foods and nutrition from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University in human nutrition and community nutrition, respectively. Prior to her position at UIC, she was a faculty member in Public Health and Health Education at Northern Illinois University. She completed a Family Research Consortium Postdoctoral Fellowship examining family processes in diverse populations at The Pennsylvania State University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Community Health Scholars Fellowship in community-based participatory research at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.