During her senior year, Maddox was accepted into medical school; her father's illness caused her to give up medical school and take a position as a technician at the Medical College of Virginia in order to provide for her parents and two brothers.[4][5] Later, after marrying and becoming a mother, Maddox enrolled in graduate school,[4][5] and in 1981 she received her Ph.D. in physiology from Georgetown University.[5]