She received her undergraduate degree in psychology from DePauw University. She then attended medical school at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, where she graduated with Honors in 1996. She stayed at the University of Chicago Hospitals for Internal Medicine residency training. She completed a health services research fellowship at the University of Michigan in the Robert Wood Johnson/VA Clinical Scholars Program. While she was there, she also received an MA in Higher Education Administration from the School of Education. She joined the faculty of the Medical College of Wisconsin in the Department of Medicine in 2003.