Stacey grew up in D.C., looking at the White House from the window of her bedroom and receiving math awards in her spare time. Walking into the footsteps of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Madeleine Korbel Albright, Stacey went to Wellesley to become a famous politician. There, she took a biology class and liked it so much that she thought of delaying a bit her political ambitions for a PhD in Cancer Biology. At Stanford, still looking for a role model, Stacey decided to work under the supervision of a woman scientist. Her lack of knowledge in French led her to believe that Julien was a female name. When she realized her error, it was too late.

In the Sage lab, Stacey explores the link between defects in stem cells during embryonic development and the initiation of cancer in children, focusing on neural development.