Dr. Spigland received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University and her M.D. degree from New York Medical College. She completed her General surgery residency at the Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and her Pediatric surgical fellowship at St. Justine Children's Hospital in Montreal, Canada in 1989. She subsequently joined the surgical faculty of the UMDNJ -Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey. In 1995, she relocated to New York City and joined the surgical staff of the New York Presbyterian Hospital - Cornell Campus.