She completed her Ph.D. in Immunology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and her B.S. in Engineering from Florida A&M University. Dr. Crowder performed her postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania in the laboratory of Dr. Wafik El-Deiry where she examined mechanisms of resistance to TRAIL-induced cell death in human non-malignant cells. While at the University of Pennsylvania, she was selected as a PENN-PORT postdoctoral fellow. The NIH-funded Institutional Research and Career Developmental Award (IRACDA) fellowship provided Dr. Crowder with postdoctoral training in both research and current methods in teaching. As a PENN-PORT fellow, Dr. Crowder became a visiting faculty member at Lincoln University where she taught introductory biology and cancer biology.