 Markowitz was born in Tarrytown, New York, on September 14, 1961.She attended Edgemont High School in Scarsdale, New York and graduated with honors from the University of Vermont, with a degree in philosophy and political science in 1983, and earned her Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1987, "".As a law student at Georgetown, Markowitz did an oral history of then DC Circuit Court Judge, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.