Manalle was born and raised in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia until 2009 when, after high school graduation, she moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. She graduated from the University of New Orleans in 2013 Cum Laude with a BS in Biology. Her undergraduate work included studies on the population genetics of aquatic snails in Mexico and the behavior of invasive Rio Grande cichlids in Louisiana. She joined Dr. Berumen’s Reef Ecology Lab in 2013 and worked on population genetics and evolutionary ecology. She graduated in December 2014 and has moved on to apply her skills to studying reptiles at the University of Arkansas as a PhD student.