Born in Washington D.C. and raised in Seat Pleasant, Maryland and later in Flint, Michigan, Furr-Holden attended Flint Northern High School and graduated from Potomac High School in Oxon Hill, Maryland before enrolling at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) for her Bachelor of Arts degree and PhD.

[3] During her tenure at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Furr-Holden established the Drug Investigations, Violence, and Environmental Studies Laboratory (DIVE) in 2005.

[4] As an assistant professor in Mental Health at the Bloomberg School, Furr-Holden used her Presidential Early Career Award to fund her research on how alcohol and drugs contribute to youth violence.

[8] In early 2016, Furr-Holden left JHU to accept a Full professor position at Michigan State University's (MSU) College of Human Medicine Division of Public Health.

In this role, she would advise on how to best assist low-income communities in Flint and drive health efforts such as access to safe and affordable housing.