Lily Parkinson attended Colorado State University for her undergraduate and veterinary studies. She then completed a small animal rotating internship at North Carolina State University followed by a Zoological Medicine and Surgery Residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Milwaukee County Zoo, and International Crane Foundation. She then travelled to the University of Georgia for a small animal emergency and critical care residency and is now double boarded in Zoological Medicine and Surgery and Emergency and Critical Care. She is now a clinical veterinarian at the Brookfield Zoo.