Alma Jessie Neill was born in Illinois and became a schoolteacher before graduating from Illinois State Normal University (now Illinois State University) in 1911. She received three more degrees from the University of Illinois in 1913, 1915, and 1920, where she became interested in physiology and served as a graduate assistant in the department (1915-1920). She moved to Norman and the University of Oklahoma to serve as professor of physiology from 1920 to 1941. In 1926, Dr. Neill left OU to tour various laboratories in Europe and conducted studies in physiology with the faculty of medicine at the University of Paris. In 1945, she was the first woman from OU to be granted a fellowship by the American Association of University Women and was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the International Physiological Congress.