She received her undergraduate degree from Columbia College in biopsychology, and went on to complete her MD/PhD at Columbia University in the MSTP program. Her graduate research involved the cloning and characterization of a novel gene, ERNI (Early Response to Neural Induction), implicated in the response to inductive signals involved in the early stages of neural development in the chick embryo. Other projects included the study of inductive signals involved in ocular development and lens induction. She continued with post-graduate training in general surgery and ophthalmology at Lenox Hill Hospital and Mt. Sinai in New York City.