 She attended Holy Rosary High School (now Red Cloud Indian School), and Regis College (now Regis University), with a major in Accounting and a minor in History.She received her Master of Arts in Liberal Studies in Creative Writing from Wesleyan University, and her doctorate in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona.Red Shirt has been a member of the United States Marine Corps, served as the Chairperson of the United Nations NGO Committee on the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, and as the United Nations Representative for the Four Directions Council