Professor Sherwin was born in Lubbock, Texas, and grew up in Ruidoso, New Mexico. She graduated from the University of New Mexico with a B.S. in Biology and was one of the first law students at Texas Tech to graduate with a J.D./M.S. in Environmental Toxicology. After graduating, she moved to Dallas to practice environmental law, where she represented industrial workers and communities in toxic tort litigation. She is admitted to practice in Texas and before the Supreme Court of the United States. 

In 2008, Dr. Sherwin moved back to Lubbock to teach and complete her Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology. Her research has focused on endangered species, environmental health, and environmental justice issues, including the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and the environmental impact of coal ash waste ponds. She has been published in the top environmental law journals in the country, including the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and the N.Y.U. Environmental Law Journal. In 2019, in recognition of her research and scholarship, Dr. Sherwin was one of a select few professors on the Texas Tech University campus to be awarded the prestigious President's Excellence in Research Professorship. 

More than anything, Dr. Sherwin loves working with students. In addition to teaching Legal Practice at the law school, she teaches Environmental Health in the Texas Tech University Dept. of Public Health. Her excellence in teaching has been recognized through her campus-wide awards. In 2019, she received the Chancellor's Council Distinguished Teaching Award – the highest teaching honor awarded within the Texas Tech University System. She has also been a recipient of the Texas Tech New Faculty Award and was voted the Outstanding Teacher of the Year in Public Health in 2014 and again in 2019. She enjoys serving as a faculty advisor to numerous student organizations, coaching arbitration as part of Texas Tech's #1 ABA-Ranked Advocacy Program (2018-2019), and spending time with her husband (also a law professor and director of the advocacy program) and their shelties, Glinda, Elphaba, and Nessarose.