Alicia grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and earned her B.A. in English and Spanish from the University of Oregon.  While enrolled at the university, she studied abroad and worked with non-profit organizations in Mexico, Spain, Guatemala, and Cuba.  After graduation, she lived briefly in the San Francisco Bay Area and southern Florida, then traveled to Costa Rica and worked in a state-run orphanage.

Always a painter, Alicia began exhibiting her work in 2005.  She received a grant from the George Sugarman Foundation in 2007, and that same year was awarded an Honorarium from the City of Berkeley.  She received her Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from San Francisco Art Institute in 2009.  Starting Fall 2010, she will be earning her MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons in New York City.