Cashman was educated at Middlebury College, Vermont where she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geology and Biology in 1976.

[6] Her PhD research applied theories of crystal size distributions to volcanic systems, and was supervised by Bruce Marsh.

[1][8] Cashman studies links between chemical and physical factors that control magma ascent, eruption, and emplacement on the Earth's surface.

[4][9][10] Her research uses a combination of volcanology, igneous petrology, kinetics, microscopy and fluid dynamics with a focus on mafic volcanoes.

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