Higgins is originally from
Mumbai, India, and did her undergraduate studies at the
University of Mumbai, graduating in 1978. She completed her Ph.D. in 1983 at the
University of Notre Dame; her dissertation,
Heterogeneous Algebras Associated with Non-Indexed Algebras, a Representation Theorem on Weak Automorphisms of Universal Algebras, was supervised by Abraham Goetz. In 2009 she became director of
Project NExT, after the previous director,
T. Christine Stevens, stepped down; this project is an initiative of the
Mathematical Association of America to provide career guidance to new doctorates in mathematics. Higgins is married to Bill Higgins, a mathematics professor at
Wittenberg University, and the two regularly take their
sabbaticals together in California. ==Recognition==