Growing up in a U.S. Navy family, she spent a large part of her childhood overseas, including Guam, Japan, and the Philippines.

She studied biology and ecology at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1968.

Knudsen then taught in a nursing program at a community college and worked as a counselor at women's health clinics in Pennsylvania and Illinois.

As a young woman, Knudsen felt a calling to the priesthood, but at that time the Episcopal Church was not ordaining women.

Following the decision of the church to ordain women, Knudsen attended Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Illinois, earning a M. Div.

[9] In fact, her ministry in Maryland lasted three years before her "hail and farewell" notice (following Navy tradition) on December 6, 2018.