She has also been a Visiting Professor of Environmental Policy and Leadership at the University of Vermont Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.

She attended Edgemont High School in Scarsdale, New York and graduated with honors from the University of Vermont, with a degree in philosophy and political science in 1983, and earned her Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1987, magna cum laude.

As a law student at Georgetown, Markowitz did an oral history of then DC Circuit Court Judge, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

[9] In 1990, the Vermont League of Cities and Towns (VLCT) established its Municipal Law Center, for which Markowitz was hired as its first director.

[15] Markowitz also established the Vermont Public Service Award program to recognize local officials who served for 20 years or more.

In this role she shaped the environmental agenda of the state, focusing on the challenges of climate change, habitat fragmentation and the need to make Vermont more resilient to flooding.

Over the next six years, Deb and her commissioners and staff secured protection for shorelines; universal recycling requirements; a Lake Champlain cleanup plan, and greater attention to forest fragmentation.

"[20] Markowitz serves on the Boards of Advisors for the Georgetown Climate Center, Antioch's Center for Climate Preparedness and Community Resilience, for the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, and as a Trustee of the Vermont Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.