Isabelle graduated from Cornell University in 1991 with a B.A. in chemistry and biology. After temporary technical work, she began graduate studies at Michigan State University’s Department of Botany and Plant Pathology. After obtaining her doctorate in 1999, she did postdoctoral research in plant enzymology at the Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes in Strasbourg, France. She also did postdoctoral research in plant physiology and molecular biology at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Products Utilization Research Unit in Oxford, Mississippi, USA. In 2004, she joined the Forage-Animal Production Research Unit, a U.S. Department of Agriculture research laboratory on the campus of the University of Kentucky, USA. She works as a plant physiologist, studying carbohydrates and phenolic compounds of grasses and legumes.