She earned a bachelor of business administration degree from the University of Miami School of Business, and worked in banking before earning her law degree from the School of Law. Born in the Republic of Panama, she experienced a unique blend of cultural and religious influences that compelled her to contemplate life and its meaning at an early age. She attended Catholic primary and secondary schools, as a practicing Jehovah’s Witness. On moving to the U.S., she continued in the Jehovah’s Witness religion, while attending a conservative, fundamentalist, Christian high school. By the age of 30, she sought to resolve the ironies and contradictions she observed in life, and find answers beyond what her religious exposure had taught her.