Born in Chicago, Illinois,[REF] Peniston earned a bachelor's degree in education from the University of La Verne in 1970,[REF] and spent her career teaching social studies and foreign languages at Scott Carpenter Middle School in Adams County School District 50 from 1971 to 1999 [REF].
From 2005 to 2006, Peniston was Assistant Secretary of the Adams County Democratic Party,[REF] and was a member of the Adams County Democratic Latino PAC and the Colorado Democratic Latino Initiative [REF].