Chamberlain earned an associate’s degree in pre-English from Hinds’ Utica Campus and a bachelor’s degree in English from Tougaloo College. She left Tougaloo to attend the University of Dayton in Ohio, where she earned a master’s degree in English. She received a doctorate in secondary education from Mississippi State University.

Chamberlain currently serves as chair of the department of English and modern foreign languages at Jackson State University.