Education
Fast graduated from Belleville Township High School East in Belleville, Illinois in 1971 and earned a Master of Science degree in Business Administration from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science degree in from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. She was given an honorary Juris Doctor degree from Central Missouri University. She also is a graduate of the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and the Armed Forces Staff College, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Public University System.