Carol F. Justus was born on March 21, 1940, in Lodi, Ohio.

From 1967 to 1969 she studied at the Institute for Assyriology and Hittitology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Justus received a Ph.D. in Indo-European linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin in 1973 under the supervision of Edgar C. Polomé.

From 1982 to 1985 she was a research associate at the Linguistics Research Center at UT Austin, and then associate professor of linguistics at San Jose State University 1989 to 1994.

[1] At Austin, Justus taught Indo-European studies, among other subjects.