Deonna graduated from the USAF Academy in 1994 and served on active duty for five years before pursing an academic career. She has a M.Div. degree from the General Theological Seminary in New York, where she concentrated on the relationship between religion and science, a M.Phil from the University of Oxford, where she wrote on the role of law in the development of the classical just war tradition, and a PhD in Moral Theology from the University of Notre Dame. Deonna is currently serving as a visiting professor in the Lyon Chair of Professional Ethics at the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs where she teaches philosophical and military ethics.