She received her degrees from University College Dublin in Ireland, where she was born and raised. As part of her six-year architectural studies she spent an academic year at Oulun Yliopiston, the University of Oulu, in Finland, on a European exchange program. She also spent a year gaining work experience and traveling extensively; she visited Japan and Peru and a few places in between! It was during this period that she met her American husband. Upon completing her studies she did an internship with the Exhibition Department at the Guggenheim Museum, New York before working for a year with an architectural practice in Dublin. Upon moving to the United States permanently she worked in the commercial studio at Roger Ferris + Partners before turning to residential architecture.