Her undergrad from Oregon State University is in nutrition with an emphasis on dietetics. She often rebels against her nutrition degree by eating pizza regularly. 
Pizza and Mandy have been synonymous ever since she traveled from Oregon to Massachusetts eating pizza and writing stories inspired by hundreds of thousands of calories. The journey was called “Pizza-Inspired Prose” and when she’s asked what her favorite pizza was from the trip - Mandy can’t stand that her answer is a cliche - but Pizano’s Pizza in Chicago, Illinois was the BEST. That’s right. Chicago-style. John’s Pizzeria in New York City was the runner-up.

Mandy loves pizza and rain in no particular order. Well, rain is actually first, then pizza. Except for when she’s really hungry, then maybe pizza is first and rain takes a backseat. The order is particular at times. Rain on her pizza, however, is never good. But pizza inside while watching the rain is rather lovely.
Mandy obsessively checks her Submittable account and has two collaborations in-progress: one is a collection of her flash fiction with a focus on women and the other is a television pilot screenplay set in the 1990s before the electronic medical record.