[1] Finger majored in astronomy, with a minor in medieval language and literature, at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating magna cum laude in 1972.
She continued at the University of Pennsylvania for a master's degree in operations research in 1974, and completed a Ph.D. in electric power systems and civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981.
In 1987 she came to Carnegie Mellon University as a researcher in the Robotics Institute, and in 1991 she returned to a faculty position as assistant professor of civil engineering.
[3] With John R. Dixon, she was founding editor-in-chief of the journal Research in Engineering Design, which published its first issue in 1989.
[4] Finger was named an ASME Fellow in 2013,[5] for "major contributions in the field of engineering design education and research".