Tessa graduated summa cum laude from A&M in 1998 with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering. She received her M.S. in Industrial Engineering with a 4.0 GPA from A&M in 2000. At A&M, Tessa completed an engineering co-op with Nibco, Inc., as an undergraduate, spending 2 semesters working at their Nacogdoches location and one semester working at their headquarters in Elkhart, Indiana. She, her husband Keith, and daughters Temple and Teagan live in Kingwood, Texas. Tessa stated that A&M was a wonderfully comfortable, encouraging, and stimulating place to mature into an adult. She believes the learning environment at A&M played a major role in making her confident, independent, productive, and compassionate, and these traits have carried over into every activity she does today.