Professor Lisa Riddle grew up in the small rural community of Toronto, South Dakota, where she graduated from Deubrook Area High School. She attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, where she participated in music and obtained her Elementary Education bachelor's degree with an emphasis in Early Childhood Education.
After graduation Professor Riddle moved to Phoenix, Arizona, and spent the next five years teaching first and second grade in an inner-city school. While teaching, she gained her SEI (Sheltered English Immersion) endorsement from the state of Arizona. In 2008 she was selected to be an SEI teacher for a state-wide English immersion pilot program.
Following her husband's discharge from the United States Air Force, Professor Riddle relocated back to the Midwest and began teaching in the Sioux Falls School District as an ELL (English Language Learner) teacher. She taught immigrant and refugee children English at Lowell Elementary school while obtaining her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in English as a New Language at South Dakota State University. Professor Riddle joined the education faculty at the University of Sioux Falls in the fall of 2015. She lives in Sioux Falls with her husband Nathan and daughter Mollie.