She is originally from London. She recently graduated from the Toni Stabile Investigative Unit at the Columbia Journalism School. Decca aims to follow in the footsteps of her namesake, Jessica "Decca" Mitford, an investigative journalist and civil rights activist. She was the Varsity Trust Scholar for 2016-17 and a recipient of the Hugh Fulton Byas Memorial Fund, a scholarship for British journalists studying in the United States.Before pursuing journalism full-time, Decca did an MPhil and PhD in Postcolonial literature at the University of Cambridge, taught undergraduates, and researched in the Middle East.