Migene Gonzalez-Wippler was born in Puerto Rico and has degrees in psychology and anthropology from the University of Puerto Rico and from Colombia University.  She has worked as a science editor for the  Interscience Division of John Wiley, the American Institute of Physics, and the American Museum of Natural History, and as an English editor for the United Nations in Vienna, where she lived for many years.  She is a cultural anthropologist and lectures frequently at universities and other educational institutions.