She was born and raised in northeastern North Carolina. Her early training was in organic chemistry with Dr. John Myers at North Carolina Central University (B.S. 1990) and Professor Richard Polniaszek at Duke University (M.S. 1992). She obtained her doctorate in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Dr. rer. nat. 1997) at the Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany with Professor Richard Neidlein followed by postdoctoral training at the Universität Basel, Basel, Switzerland (1997-1999) with Professor Bernd Giese. From 2000-2007 she held the positions of assistant and associate professor at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan before moving to the University of Toledo.