In 1981, Ingham earned a PhD from the Colorado State University in microbiology with an emphasis in soil.
[citation needed] Along with her husband Russ, who has a doctorate in zoology emphasizing nematology, she was offered a post-doctoral fellowship at the Natural Resource Ecology Lab at Colorado State University.
In 1985, she accepted a Research Associate Fellowship at the University of Georgia.
[citation needed] In 1986, Ingham moved to Oregon State University and joined the faculty in both Forest Science and Botany and Plant Pathology.
[citation needed] Ingham has been an Affiliate Professor of Sustainable Living at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, Adjunct Faculty at Southern Cross University in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia from 1999 to 2005, Visiting Professor with Melbourne University from 2004 to 2008,[3] and was Program Chair of the Ecological Society of America from 1999 to 2000.