Alison Scott spent most of her childhood in Kennewick, WA, and graduated from Whitman College with a degree in English literature. She earned graduate degrees in library science, religion, and American studies at the University of Chicago and Boston University, while pursuing a 40-year career in academic librarianship, with positions at Columbia University, Smith College, Bowling Green State University, Harvard University, George Washington University, the University of California, Riverside, and UCLA.
She moved to The Dalles, Oregon, from Los Angeles in 2020, working remotely until she retired in 2022.Since retiring, she has been active with the Friends of The Dalles Library and the Citizen Archivist Program of the National Archives. She has been a committed fan of Maryhill since she went on a field trip to the Museum as a middle-school student.