She received her bachelor’s degree (cum laude) in chemistry from the University of Texas at Arlington, and her master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Rice University. Studying at Rice University afforded her the opportunity to work with and be mentored by some of the top scientists in the nanotechnology field. Her research, which focused on characterizing solution-phase nanomaterials (gold and cadmium selenide) and the bioconjugation of gold nanoparticles, has been published in high-impact-factor journals and helped her win prestigious doctoral fellowships through the National Science Foundation’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NSF-AGEP) and the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Nanobiology Training Program.