She attended Catholic University of America, where she earned a bachelor's degree in 1960, in nursing and biology. As a young woman Happ worked as a public health nurse in Harlem. After moving to California in the 1960s, she pursued graduate studies at Berkeley, earning a master's degree in public health administration in 1965, and completing doctoral work in epidemiology in 1963.[1] Her dissertation was titled "Coronary Risk Factors in Japanese-Caucasian Mixed Marriages," and followed the health of Japanese war brides, whose environments changed dramatically between childhood to adulthood.[2]