Lexi obtained her Bachelor's of Science in Biomedical Science with a minor in Chemistry from Northern Arizona University in 2017. She then worked as a Research Assistant I at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, Pathogen and Microbiome Division. She primarily worked on biodefense  and Mycobacterium tuberculosis projects centered around amplicon assay development for high throughput sequencing for the rapid detection of biothreat agents and their near neighbors or the detection of clinically relevant SNPs. During the Covid-19 pandemic she worked in the clinical lab processing potential SARS-CoV2 positive specimens for surveillance in under served communities in rural Arizona. She graduated from Colorado State University in the summer of 2025 with a PhD in Cell & Molecular Biology and graduate certificate in Data Analysis. Her PhD focused on the evolution of a persistent viral infection of Drosophila melanogaster called galbut virus. In this work she established the use of old, dried insect museum specimens as a source of viral RNA to study virus evolution. 

Lexi was an NIH T32 Fellow from 2021-2023. She was alao received two awards for her mentorship skills and obtained an award for mentorship training that provided funding for an undergraduate researhcer. She has won several awards for scientific talks and posters presentations and successfully secured funding for attendance at several conferences during her PhD.