Kassi was an undergraduate student from Truman State University. During the summer of 2012, she studied the role of the Hippo pathway in Drosophila ovarian development. The Leadership Alliance program supported this summer research opportunity. Kassi completed her undergraduate degree in 2013, majoring in biology with minors in chemistry and psychology. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in genetics in the Boekhoff-Falk lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.