[6] She returned to the study of geology this time at Brown University from 1993 to 1997 where she was awarded a master's degree and a doctorate[1] while working under the guidance of Carle M. Pieters.

In February 2018, she left DARPA to become vice president for research and technology transfer at Colorado School of Mines, spending three years there.

[9][10] Regarding her decision to leave DARPA for Mines, Tompkins told an interviewer:[11]I spent my career in a combination of national service and science and technology development.

When you're in the intersection of these spaces, you start to develop an idea of what is important to you and what is needed to solve hard problems.According to Tompkins, her time at Mines was a valuable preparation for understanding "critical mineral supply chains" and the role of academia "in the national security ecosystem".

[12] In 2016, Tompkins described to Michigan State University faculty DARPA's mission: "to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security" in order to prevent, or to create, "strategic surprise".