Dr Dunowska graduated as a veterinarian from Warsaw Agricultural University in Poland. She earned her PhD in veterinary virology from Massey University in New Zealand, followed by 5.5 years of postdoctoral research at Colorado State University in the USA, where she also held a position of infection control officer for the Veterinary Teaching Hospital and completed a large animal internship. She then spent some time in a rural veterinary practice in Australia, followed by employment as a virology section leader at the State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Melbourne, before returning to Massey University as an academic staff member in 2008.