Kristy did her undergraduate work at Bates College in Lewiston, ME where she received a BA in Biology in 2012. She then moved to Athens, GA where she obtained a PhD in Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences from the University of Georgia in 2017. Her research investigated the role of the transcription factor HIF-1a in thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency-induced neurological damage. She joined the Buckwalter lab at Stanford University in 2017 as a Postdoctoral Scholar to continue researching mechanisms of neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation. At Stanford, Kristy studied vascular contributions to cognitive decline after stroke and infarct-induced neurodegeneration.