Nancy Master grew up in Greenville in Western Michigan. Her father was in middle management at a refrigerator company and her mother was a librarian and a teacher.
She and her husband Larry and their daughter came to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1980 at the suggestion of Master's uncle, a doctor who had established a practice here. Larry was hired at Roy Martin Junior High, and in February of 1981, Nancy was hired to teach library skills classes at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).
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.