She has a Master of Science degree in Physiology from the University of North Dakota and a Master of Education degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ms. Murphy served as an Air Force officer, pharmaceutical research quality assurance inspector, and high school science teacher while working for twenty years as an adjunct instructor at colleges and universities in North Dakota and Illinois. She joined the faculty of Lake Region State College as an adjunct in 1996 and then full time in 2011.