Heather completed her undergraduate training at the University of Southern California. She was a lab aide in Dr. Lorraine Turcotte’s lab, and fell in love with research the first time she developed a Western blot (even though it did not show anything useful). Heather moved to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center for her graduate and postdoctoral training. She obtained her PhD in Molecular and Developmental Biology in the lab of Dr. Geraldine Guasch. For her postdoc, Heather joined the lab of Dr. Jim Wells, where she developed her interest in enteroendocrine cells as the center of intestinal physiology and metabolism. She chose to study the gut and metabolism because of her love of food.