Morgan Balabanoff grew up in Denver, Colorado and attended Creighton University where she completed her B.S in chemistry and conducted research in the analytical chemistry lab of Gary Michels. Following her undergraduate education, she pursued her graduate education in the lab of David T. Anderson at the University of Wyoming where she conducted matrix-isolation spectroscopy research and investigated hydrogen atom quantum tunneling reactions. During her Ph.D., she was selected as a LAMP fellow for Wyoming's Science Initative where she was immersed in pedagoical training for active learning methodologies. During this fellowship, she began a DBER (discipline-based education research) project to develop assessments in general chemistry. Upon completion of her Ph.D. studies, she was a postdoctoral researcher for Alena Moon at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she investigated students' understanding of light-matter interactions. Morgan started her independent career in January 2022 at the University of Louisville where her research group focuses on assesment development and implementation, science and engineering practices in undergraduate chemistry, and factoring influencing student retention.