Stephanie, a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Accounting from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and her Masters of Business Administration specializing in Accounting from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. She graduated with honors from North Carolina Central School of Law after completing the law school's evening program designed for working professionals.

During her last two years of law school, Stephanie served as a member of the school's Moot Court Board. While serving on the board, Stephanie competed in the Craven Moot Court Competition at UNC School of Law and the National First Amendment Competition held annually at Vanderbilt University School of Law. Stephanie also served as a founding board member of North Carolina Central's chapter of the North Carolina Innocence Project, which is sponsored by the NC Center on Actual Innocence. The Center's mission is to identify, investigate and advance credible claims of innocence made by inmates convicted of felonies in North Carolina. The Center's secondary mission is to educate policymakers, law and journalism students, the public, the media, and the legal/law enforcement communities about systemic problems in the criminal justice system that lead to wrongful convictions, as well as the emerging solutions to those problems. Additionally, Stephanie demonstrated an aptitude for leadership by serving on various other committees in law school including the SBA Executive Board, the Class of 2004 Executive Board and the 2004 Graduation Committee. During her final year of law school, the Dean of the Law School, Janice Mills, presented Stephanie with the Dean's Leadership Award.

Harrington, Gilleland & Winstead, LLP welcomed Stephanie as an Associate in 2005. Due to her Bachelor and Master degrees in accounting as well as her work experience in that area, Stephanie offers a unique diversity to the firm. She began her practice at Harrington, Gilleland & Winstead by assisting the firm in the successful litigation of both criminal defense and civil matters. In addition to civil litigation and criminal defense work, Stephanie focuses her practice in the areas of Estate Planning, Probate and Estate Administration, Business and Corporate Law and Personal Injury.

Stephanie is currently a member of several professional organizations including the North Carolina State Bar, the North Carolina Bar Association, the Lee County Bar Association, the American Bar Association and the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers.

Stephanie presently resides in Cary, North Carolina where she enjoys a variety of hobbies including traveling, reading, cooking, playing golf and spending time with her significant other, Mr. Matthew Adams.