Holly Bartimus studied Mandarin Chinese through the Defense Language Institute in Presidio of Monterey (CA). She served as a signal intelligence analyst and Chinese linguist for the Army. Before medical school, Holly worked as a firefighter with the Oregon Department of Forestry, was a commercial plumber and studied Spanish in Ecuador. While at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Holly was a Summer Research Fellow with the Emergency & Public Health Department of Seattle. Her study of automated external defibrillators resulted in a first author publication in Prehospital Emergency Care. Holly completed two years of training in general surgery at the University of Washington before joining the emergency medicine program at Northwestern.