Dr. Jakobs earned her doctoral degree in nursing at the University of North Dakota, her Master of Science in Nursing at California State University at Sacramento, and her family nurse practitioner certification at the University of California, Davis. She is an instructor at California State University, Fresno, and currently practices at Sierra Family Medical Clinic in North San Juan, a small rural community in northern California. Dr. Jakobs is an avid researcher of rural and frontier nursing and is an active member of the Rural Nurses Organization, the Western Institute of Nursing, and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.