[3] She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history.

[4] She received a Juris Doctor in 1979 from the George C. Taylor College of Law at the University of Tennessee.

in Knoxville, in 2002, where she practiced mediation and litigation concentrated in the area of employment and contract matters.

"[4] In an interview, she named Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, which recognized sexual harassment as a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as her favorite Supreme Court decision.

She received her judicial commission on March 7, 2014,[8] and she became chief judge on April 1, 2019.