Brooks was raised in Anchorage, Alaska and has always wanted to be an entrepreneur. However, after an auto collision with a moose in high school and a growing discomfort in the Great Outdoors, she decided Alaska wasn’t a great fit for her career path. She left in 1998 and moved to North Carolina to attend Duke University.

Brooks’ entrepreneurial journey began with a Tuition Painters franchise during her freshman year. She drove a 1973 Chinook "paint-mobile" and hired a crew from the Durham County jail. She faced immediate challenges: Her ladders got stolen, and she learned tough lessons in finances and management. Brooks sold her paint-mobile and waited tables to pay off considerable painting debt.

In 2001, Brooks made a second attempt at entrepreneurship and co-founded novelProjects, a website development firm. It was spun off and sold to Atlantic BT in 2010.

Brooks founded Brooks Bell in 2003, shortly after graduating from Duke with a degree in psychology. She quickly gained several enterprise clients, and Brooks Bell has become the leading independent conversion optimization firm in the U.S.

Brooks regularly speaks about testing, analytics and entrepreneurship. She’s spoken at several universities, including Duke, UNC and North Carolina State University, as well as corporate summits including SAS, CenturyLink and Servicemaster.

Brooks is also the 2011 chapter president of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, and is involved with TIMA, AMA and AAS.

Brooks lives in Raleigh with her husband and their dog, Theo.