Born in Nebraska, Dr. Spanggaard completed her medical school training in Kansas City, residency in South Dakota, and forensic fellowship at SUNY Upstate. She then returned to South Dakota where she was on faculty at the University of South Dakota psychiatry residency. She then moved to Tucson to start and direct the forensic psychiatry fellowship at the University of Arizona. She is currently a tele psychiatrist for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She is the chair of the Criminal Behavior committee and Co-Program Chair for the 2023 meeting of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, the treasurer of the Midwestern chapter of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, and is a member of the American Psychiatric Association’s Guttmacher Award committee.