She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan and a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University where she was awarded a William Kinne Fellowship. She received the 2016 AIA Oklahoma Young Professional Achievement Honor Award. She teaches architecture studio and computational design and fabrication seminars at the University of Oklahoma. She was the 2016 Bruce Goff Chair of Creative Architecture at the University of Oklahoma. Prior to founding Inter-Projects Architecture, Deborah worked at the offices of Urbanus in Beijing, WORKac in New York City, and Fitzsimmons Architects in Oklahoma City.