Caroline Marianne Coffey was born in Dublin, Ireland on June 20, 1980.
Her parents Michael and Patricia moved with Caroline and her brother Paul to Pennsylvania in 1982. Caroline attended Scranton Preparatory School where she graduated magna cum laude in 1998. Caroline entered The University of Scranton with a Loyola Scholarship and began her studies in biology in August 1998. At Scranton, she was captain of the equestrian team, ran on the cross-country team, and was a member of the Tri-Beta biology honor society. For her academic and equestrian accomplishments, Caroline won the Northeastern Pennsylvania Horsemen’s Association Scholarship. In partial
fulfillment of her minor in Spanish, Caroline studied in Guadalajara at
Universidad del Valle de Atemajac (UNIVA) in 2000. Also in 2000, Caroline began undergraduate research on the PCR-based detection of Xanthomonas campestris p.v. pelargonii with Dr. Michael Sulzinski. She graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in December 2001.
Caroline was accepted into the field of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell
Biology at Cornell University and began her studies in January 2002. After laboratory rotations, she worked in the lab of Dr. James Casey in the field of Comparative Biomedical Sciences for nine months. Due to a lack of financial support, Caroline changed advisors and began research with Dr. John Parker in August 2003. During this time, Caroline co-founded the Graduate Advisory Council and European Club at Cornell. During her graduate work, Caroline was awarded the Bicknese Prize and travel grants from the American Society for Virology and Cornell. Currently, Caroline is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Saint Joseph’s University.