Originally from southeast Tennessee, Sullivan was raised on a goat farm started by her late father and her mother in Bledsoe County. Surrounded by vegetable farms and smaller-scale row cropping and forage, agronomy had always been part of her life, even if it was not an initial interest of her youth. FFA during high school allowed her to branch out into topic areas and initial research endeavors through the Agriscience Fair and other career development events.

Sullivan graduated with her bachelor’s degree in agriculture – agricultural engineering technology and precision agriculture from the University of Tennessee at Martin in 2018. Working as a manager trainee for the Tennessee Farmers Cooperative stationed at the local branch of her home county led her down a path of wanting to go to graduate school for the intersections of agronomy and irrigation. This desire led her to Utah State University, where she did her master's and PhD with Dr. Matt Yost. Her graduate work focused on irrigation and cropping system management interactions in common and alternative forage systems. Additionally, Sullivan led some of Utah's first outdoor industrial hemp trials since the 1940s.