Bushnell received her MFA from Indiana State University in Printmaking after receiving a BFA in Art Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is an Associate Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology where she teaches for the Foundations Department. In her own practice she has continued to work with prints, exploring a diversity of non-toxic processes and the jointly authored book Design Dynamics: Integrating Design and Technology, published by Prentice Hall.