She received her Ph.D. from the University of Utah with training in social, health, and cultural psychology. Before joining the University of Utah as a faculty member, Dr. Bowen briefly studied psychoneuroimmunology as a postdoctoral fellow at the Ohio State University and completed two research fellowships in cultural and social psychology at the Kokoro Research Center at Kyoto University. She received her B.A. in Psychology from American University in Washington, D.C., and also received a M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University in California.