Virginia Velasquez was born January 22, 1978 and raised in Henderson, Nevada. She worked as a bartender while also being a member of the Sierra Club, a non-profit organization focused on improving Nevada’s natural environment.

Maureen Elise Mackey was born in October of 1943 in Teaneck, New Jersey. She was a member of the Sisters of St. Mary, and later earned her bachelor’s degree and became a high school science teacher. After serving one of several missions to the Congo, she entered medical school in 1971 at the University of Texas. After several years as a respected physiatrist in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mackey returned to school in 1999 to earn her Masters of Divinity degree at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California.