While earning her undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Missouri at St. Louis, Dr. Quigley worked in the Anatomy Department of St. Louis Medical school. It was during this time that she decided to become a physician. She graduated from the University of Kentucky Medical School in 1979, completing her six-year General Surgery residency. Dr. Quigley was the first woman to finish the University of Kentucky's general surgery residency. She was then invited by Vanderbilt University to participate in their surgery program for a year. She worked primarily with plastic surgeons and became so fascinated with the specialty that she decided to pursue it further.

Dr. Quigley completed her two-year residency in plastic surgery at the University of Tennessee Medical School in Memphis, 1988 and was asked to join the Plastic Surgery Group of Memphis in 1988.