Evangeline S. Ballerini earned her Phd from Harvard University for her work in organismic and evolutionary biology.

Ballerini grew up in El Portal where she attended El Portal Elementary School. She attended Mariposa Middle School and graduated from Mariposa County High School in 1997. She completed her bachelor of arts at U.C. Berkeley before continuing her studies at Harvard in Boston, Mass.

Her proud family includes Lynda Ballerini, Mark Chapman, Peter Mayfield, Braden Mayfield, Hayley Ballerini, Ken Yager and extended grandparents.