She received a BFA in Drawing and Painting and a BS in Art Education from Penn State University in 2003 where she won the Freedman and Hamill prize. In 2005 she joined the MFA Painting program at Boston University and was chosen as a finalist for the Esther B. and Albert S. Kahn Career Entry Award. After graduating from Boston University with her MFA in 2007 she was awarded the Junior Artist in Residence position at the Oregon College of Art and Craft, and continued to work at OCAC, the Pacific Northwest College of Art, and Nike's Blue Ribbon Studios until her move back to Pittsburgh in 2016. Heisey's work has been shown at museums, galleries and colleges across the country including the Boston Center for the Arts, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and most recently at SITE:Brooklyn in Brooklyn, NY.