Akhila completed her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Art Education with a minor in the teaching of English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1997. In 2000, she finished pre-medical curriculum at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois. She went on to complete a Masters of Science through the Biomedical Visualization (BVIS) program at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2003 specializing in Anaplastology. Akhila began working at the Institute for Reconstructive Sciences in Medicine (iRSM) in 2004, and has been an Anaplastologist there since that time, creating implant and adhesive-retained facial prosthetics for cancer, trauma and congenital patients experiencing facial differences. In addition, Akhila currently serves as the Lead for Specialized Services at iRSM, working with Leadership and iRSM colleagues in Anaplastology and the associated health fields of Audiology and Speech Pathology. Her focuses include implementing digital technology into the treatment of facial prosthetic patients, patient advocacy and recruitment, and patient quality of life.