Dr. Wittern graduated from Northwestern College in 2008 with bachelor's degrees in psychology and sociology. She pursued graduate and doctoral studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, earning a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. While serving as a commissioned U.S. Army officer, Dr. Wittern completed an internship in clinical psychology at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. For her postdoctoral residency, she was stationed at Wahiawa, Hawaii, where she specialized in trauma and military psychology. She has received extensive training in various psychotherapy techniques, including trauma informed guilt reduction therapy (TrIGR), interpersonal psychotherapy for depression (IPT-D), eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR), and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Prior to joining Northwestern's faculty in 2022, Dr. Wittern worked as a clinical psychologist with Veterans Affairs.