Samantha graduated with her bachelor's degree in Anthropology from UC Riverside, and earned her Masters in Public Health from San Francisco State University, where her capstone project was inspired by her work with Breast Cancer Over Time. She is currently a PhD in Public Health graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, focusing on Community-Based and Translational Research.

Samantha is the grand-daughter of a breast cancer survivor, and is passionate about utilizing community-based participatory research approaches to address disparities in breast cancer.