Katrina Lantos Swett attended Yale University, graduating with a degree in Political Science. She received her Juris Doctor in 1976 after attending the University of California, Hastings College of Law. In 2006 she earned her Ph.D. in History with a Focus on Human Rights and United States Foreign Policy from the University of Southern Denmark. She is the wife of Ambassador and former Congressman Richard Swett and daughter of the late Congressman Tom Lantos, vice president of Swett Associates, Inc., a consulting firm.