She holds Bachelor's degrees in both Biology and Organismal Biology from Yale, where she graduated cum laude, and was a Marshall Scholar at the University of Bristol, UK, where she received her Master's degree. She earned her Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Lockwood is the founder and former director of Science and Math Achiever Teams (SMArT), a mentoring program that motivates inner-city children in math and science by pairing them with university science majors to design and carry out a one-semester research project. She is Program Coordinator (2007 to present) for the Paleontological Society and is currently (2007–2008) a Sabbatical Fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, CA.