Paige Mandelare was born in Rhode Island and spent the first 10 years growing up in the New England area before moving to Jacksonville, Florida. She then spent 13 years in Florida and received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, ACS-Certified, with a minor in Mathematical Science at the University of North Florida. She performed research for three years under the guidance of Dr. Amy Lane in marine natural product drug discovery. She then had a brief summer internship through the National Science Foundation under the guidance of Dr. Julia Kubanek at Georgia Institute of Technology also in natural products. She moved to Corvallis to pursue a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry under the research guidance of Dr. Sandra Loesgen for the next 5 years. Her research interests include marine and fungal natural products (isolation and characterization).