She was born in Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. as a child, growing up in rural northeast Missouri. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Medical Dietetics in 1976. Her undergraduate education included a coordinated program in dietetics that provided supervised practice experiences to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist. Her Master of Science degree in Human Nutrition was completed in 1979 from the University of Missouri, and the thesis was “Diet, Diuretics, Hypertension and Serum Lipids in Male Humans.” She completed additional post-graduate coursework at KUMC in Therapeutic Science.