She graduated in the top 1% of her class from South Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, North Carolina with the Class of 1979, and won two scholarships to North Carolina State University for chemical engineering and Textile Chemistry. She attended NC State for one year; maintaining a 3.9 grade-point average while she was there. She then transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill her sophomore year where she double majored in Psychology and Dramatic Art. She graduated from UNC with honors in 1984.