Shelby Kearns graduated with a bachelor of business administration in business honors from Texas A&M University. While at Texas A&M, she obtained minors in philosophy and Arabic studies. Shelby graduated from the University of Chicago with a master's in the Humanities with an emphasis in English literature. After graduating with her MA, she taught writing classes at Blinn College and then worked for a violence prevention non-profit in Fairbanks, Alaska. Shelby is a military spouse and lives in Lawton, Oklahoma, with her husband, Matthew, an Army Field Artillery officer.