Dr. Mattingly received a BA in Art History from Oberlin College. Following her liberal arts education, she attended Tulane University and received a PhD in molecular toxicology. As a graduate student, she investigated the effects of the ubiquitous environmental contaminant, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), on vertebrate development using zebrafish as model organism. She then pursued postdoctoral training at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University where she investigated the effects of retinoids on differentiation in prostate epithelial cells and mechanisms by which environmental chemicals, including AHR ligands, interfered with retinoid signaling. Since 2001, she has been an Investigator and Director of Bioinformatics at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory (MDIBL) in Salisbury Cove, Maine.

At MDIBL, Dr. Mattingly is involved in several collaborative research programs. First, she directs development of the publicly available Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD), which aims to enhance understanding about the etiologies of environmentally influenced diseases. She also conducts a laboratory research program in which she is investigating the effects of low-level exposure to arsenic or TCDD on vertebrate development using zebrafish. Recent studies uncovered novel targets of these chemicals that make significant contributions to understanding the basis of consequent phenotypes.