Originally from Syracuse, New York, Ms. Strader moved to Prescott, Arizona with her family in 1972. In addition to writing, Ms. Strader is a landscape architect, certified arborist, and watercolor artist. In 1976, she became one of the first women on a U.S. Forest Service fire crew in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson. She currently lives in the same area where her Forest Service career began.

Summers of Fire: A Memoir of Adventure, Love and Courage, her first book, through Bedazzled Ink Publishing, and she is currently working on a prequel.