She received her bachelor’s degree from Mary Washington College in Virginia. Between graduation and choosing to go back to graduate school, she worked in Hawaii to pursue her love of marine biology where she could help train dolphins in the University of Hawaii Psychology Animal Lab. After working there for roughly a year and afterwards various animal related jobs, she saw the need to go back to school to obtain her masters and eventually doctorate. While in graduate school at the University of Kentucky, it was brought to her attention that she operated well in the classroom.