skinner was born in december 1976 and has a bachelor's degree with first-class honours in geography from durham university. .she states that she "fell into engineering completely by chance" when she took a job as a transport planner in 1998. she had only intended the job to be a stop-gap for a few months but soon decided to stay. in 2001 she was awarded a master of science degree in transportation planning and engineering with a distinction by the university of leeds. in 2019 she returned to durham to deliver the 'hatfield college lecture'.