She received a BES in Environmental Science from the University of Georgia, and her PhD in Microbiology from NC State University. She has also worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a Microbiologist. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship and independent research position with Dr. Vincent Young at the University of Michigan Medical School, where she focused on defining the gastrointestinal tract microbiome and metabolome during resistance and susceptibility to Clostridium difficile colonization and infection in a mouse model.