Emswiler graduated from Eastern Mennonite University with a bachelor’s degree in nursing and biology in 1998 and from Tulane University School of Public Health with a master’s degree in public health in 2004. She served with Mennonite Central Committee in Tanzania for six years working with a community-based health promotion program as the HIV/AIDS prevention and control unit coordinator. Then she taught advanced nursing studies at the Aga Khan University –Tanzania Institute of Higher Education. For the past year, Emswiler was the executive director for the Valley AIDS Network in Harrisonburg, Va., and taught Swahili at James Madison University.