Early life and education[edit]

Stark was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Walter Stark, an eye surgeon at the Wilmer Eye Clinic at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Her interest in sports began during her childhood in Baltimore, when she attended Baltimore Colts games with her father, who treated players for eye injuries.^[4] She graduated from the Roland Park Country School, a women's prep school in Baltimore, where she was class valedictorian.^[5]


Stark graduated magna cum laude from the University of Virginia with a degree in foreign affairs and Spanish.^[6] She was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.^[3]