Emily Siegel was born and raised in Washington, DC. She received a BA in International Relations, with minors in Sociology and Jewish Studies, from the University of Delaware, during which time she studied abroad at Ben-Gurion University (in the Negev), exploring Israeli society, politics, and Bedouin rights. After finishing her degree, Emily returned to the Middle East, this time to Jerusalem, where she participated in a peace and social justice program and interned with Seeds of Peace. In 2008, she earned a Master's degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from the School of International Service at American University. Her degree program focused on the intersection of justice and peacebuilding through education, including extensive research on identity formation in the Israeli school system and how peace education methods can be used within youth organizations to create social change. During this time she worked with various organizations, including Partners for Peace, AMIDEAST, and the U.S. Institute of Peace, and co-facilitated inter-communal activities focusing on US-Islam relations and American-Jewish-Muslim relations as connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.