After receiving her Bachelor's degree from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in early Education & Family Studies and her Master's degree from Purdue University in Child Development & Family studies, she worked briefly as a Project Director for Project Literacy at Purdue University. Her duties included preparing training guides and coaching protocols for Head Start teachers and providing technical assistance and consultation in the area of Early Childhood Literacy. Tenisha was also responsible for presenting enhanced strategies to increase best classroom practices for implementing an age-appropriate emergent literacy program.