During her undergraduate studies at the architecture school of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, she participated in a one-year study abroad program at L’Ecoled’Architecture de Versailles. She went on to attend Columbia University where she earned a Masters of Science in Historic Preservation. She attests her interest in preservation to her belief that working with the existing built environment is sustainability at its best, her fascination with building construction and historic building practices, and her interest in juxtaposing the new with the old.