Eppstein grew up in the countryside in
Galesburg, Michigan, a small town outside
Kalamazoo, Michigan, where her father worked as a research scientist at
Upjohn. Her parents built one of the eight
Frank Lloyd Wright-designed homes near Kalamazoo. After switching majors every year in the Honor's College at
Michigan State University, she graduated in Zoology in 1978. She did graduate study in zoology in the early 1980s at the
University of Washington and
University of Vermont, before switching to computer science, in which she earned a master's degree at the University of Vermont in 1983. She continued at the University of Vermont as a lecturer in computer science, a position she held from 1983 to 2001. While working at the University of Vermont, she entered graduate study in civil and environmental engineering there in 1993, and completed her Ph.D. in 1997, under the supervision of David E. Dougherty. On completing her Ph.D., she became a research assistant professor in computer science, a year later adding a secondary appointment as research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. She became a regular-rank assistant professor of computer science in 2002, and added a secondary appointment as assistant professor of biology in 2005. She was founding director of the University of Vermont Complex Systems Center from 2006 until 2010, was tenured as associate professor in 2008, and promoted to full professor in 2014. She chaired the University of Vermont computer science department from 2012 until 2018, when she retired. She has continued to do research as professor emerita and research professor. ==Research==