Born and raised in Cairo, Egypt. She completed her undergraduate studies majoring in mathematics and pursued her graduate studies in the United States with an M.Div. degree from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Early Christian Studies from The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. She taught at Loyola College in Maryland and at the Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore, MD. She is presently an Assistant Professor of Early Church History at Luther Seminary, MN.