Chapel received her B.S. in Anthropology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2003 and her MIS from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 2012. Following graduation she has served the UTC campus as the Health and Science Librarian and a UC Foundation Professor specializing in health and science-related instruction, evidence synthesis consultation, and assisting the campus in navigating research impact through bibliometrics. 

Her professional research has focused on cultural responsiveness and the role of self-reflection in cultivating cultural humility in the academic classroom. She has published and presented widely on this topic and received recognition from the American Library Association for this work. In the summer of 2025 Chapel was awarded a sabbatical to extend this work in a broader exploration of the role of care in academic institutions.

Chapel also serves as an adjunct professor in UTC’s Honors College, teaching an annual course on perspectives related to death & dying. This teaching experience inspired her pursuit of a PhD in Adult and Continuing Education at UTK where her research interests encompass a variety of topics related to death education including death literacy, death education as a public good, and the ethical implications of AI-constructed “deadbots”.