Born and raised in Odessa, Tx, Mikayla graduated from Odessa High School in 2014. From there she attended McMurry University where she majored in history and minored in heritage and cultural tourism, theatre, and general business. She graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2017. Immediately following graduation, Mikayla moved to Greensboro, NC to attend the University of North Carolina Greensboro to pursue her Masters in History with a concentration in museum studies. She then moved back to Abilene where she was the assistant curator of the 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum from 2019-2021. In September of 2021, she became the Executive Director of the museum, where she still is today. While at McMurry, she met the love her life, Trey Spivey ’18, and they got married in 2021.