April first developed an interest in enzymes and the environment as an undergraduate student at Saginaw Valley State University, where she completed a B.S. in Biochemistry and worked in the labs of Dennis Gray and Tami Sivy. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from the University of Michigan with Alison Narayan studying the biosynthesis of saxitoxin in cyanobacteria and the application of enzymes in biocatalysis. She joined the lab of Bradley Moore at UC San Diego to study the biosynthesis of halogenated toxins and connecting genes to molecules. April launched her own research group at UC San Diego at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Fall 2023, where her lab focuses on the discovery of novel enzymes from natural product biosynthetic pathways and their applications as biocatalysts in medicinal chemistry.