She holds an BS in psychology from Tennessee Technological University, a MSN from Vanderbilt University, and a DNP from the University of Florida. She received her board certification as a Family Psychiatric Mental-Health Nurse Practitioner and as an Adult Psychiatric Mental-Health Clinical Nurse Specialist from the American Nurses Credentialing Center and is a member of the American Psychiatric Nursing Association and the Neuroscience Education Institute. Her DNP research, focused on changing the paradigm of psychotropic prescribing utilizing pharmacogenomics and a related article was published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing.