Ahlmahz is originally from Los Angeles and grew up in Adelanto, California. She first majored in chemistry and graduated from Victor Valley College in 1996. She returned to school, after a 10-year teaching career abroad, and is currently a second-year PhD student in Electrical Engineering at UW. Her research interests include renewable energy, integration of distributed generation, and the application of high performance computing to power system studies. Ahlmahz loves traveling, reading, eating chocolate, petting cats, and singing out loud and off key (when nobody is watching, of course).