Bainbridge was born in Roseburg but raised on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. 

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After completing her student teaching at Newberg High School in Newberg, she became a substitute teacher on the coast at both North Bend and Coos Bay School District and in Maui, Hawaii. Bainbridge would return to the Umpqua Valley as an English and substitute teacher at Roseburg High School before coming to Sutherlin High School as a Social Studies teacher in 2013.