[2] While at the Academy, Mines was a member of the fencing team, squad leader, midshipman drill officer, and regimental adjutant.

[1][2] She is reported to have found the experience hard and disillusioning, but valuable in learning how to deal with, and make progress in, the system.

[1] Mines left the Navy to earn a Masters of Business Administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with a 1998 thesis entitled "Integrated change management".

[3] She held positions in management in several corporations, including Procter & Gamble and Hershey Foods, and was Senior Vice President of Strategic Sourcing at Bank of America.

[7] In 2002, Mines was a torchbearer in the Olympic Torch Relay, and has received local civic awards.