Originally from Canada, Dr. Heacock received her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Texas A & M in College Station, Texas. Her dissertation topic focused on following the extreme terminal ends of chromosomes, telomeres, as they progressed into end-to-end chromosome fusions. Her current post-doctoral research is a structure/function study of the DNA repair enzyme, Pol ?, in response to DNA damage.