She received her BFA degree in painting at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), under the guide of the 2003 Venice Biennale participant, painter Gary Chapman, chair of the UAB art department. Among being accepted to student juried shows at UAB, Lesley was accepted as an emerging artist in the 2004 Winterpark sidewalk art festival in Winterpark, Florida. Recently, she has received some international recognition, for one of her pieces, Solitude of Isolation, from her Insect series, now resides in Duseldorf, Germany.