Kiera is from North Brunswick, New Jersey. In May, 2013, she received a master’s in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Practice. During her graduate studies, Kiera co-founded and was president of Students for International Social Work, which advocated for more internationally focused coursework and resources. She was awarded the Ruth E. Smalley award in International Social Welfare for her commitment to the international and cultural dimensions of social work practice. Kiera also interned with Philadelphia FIGHT, a comprehensive HIV/AIDS service organization in Philadelphia, where she helped co-facilitate a trauma-informed healing group for HIV-positive women and was project manager of an event for National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. In 2012, Kiera traveled with a group of students to Kolkata, India where she interviewed sex workers living with HIV who were part of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, a sex worker's collective in the Sonagachi red light district. During her undergraduate education at Rutgers University, Kiera studied abroad at the University of Queensland in Australia, and was also part of the Douglass College's Human Rights House, where she traveled to Romania to study Children's Rights and to better understand the application of the Human Rights framework to practice.