Jerubella Abelilla is from Lopez, Quezon, Philippines. Inspired by her parents who are both Agriculturists, she decided to get a BS in Agriculture at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños (UPLB), where she majored in Animal Science with a specialization in Animal Nutrition. After graduation, she worked for a feed mill company where she learned more about the animal industry. After almost two years, she decided to get her Master’s degree at UPLB. There, she worked on determining the digestibility of phosphorus in rice bran fed to pigs. She had help from Dr. Rommel Sulabo, who was then a visiting professor from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and Dr. Stein.

She met Dr. Stein when he went to Manila in 2012 and became fascinated by the research being conducted in his laboratory. Upon the completion of her Master’s degree, she decided to pursue further education and came to UIUC, where she earned her Ph.D. in 2018.