Jodi grew up in Amish Country Pennsylvania and played six different sports in high school, lettering in four her senior year. She lived in a haunted house in Mammoth Cave National Park during her summer of field work for her master's degree in geology. She flew with the U.S. Navy while in college to map the seafloor. During one flight, a Russian fighter jet flew alongside her plane to study what she was learning. This was during the Cold War, so it was scary!