McKinley grew up in Alaska where she learned to shoot a pistol and use a CB radio. She then attended Catholic school in California where she learned "Hail Mary" in Spanish and how to gracefully jump a chain link fence in a plaid skirt. Her nerdy love for physics propelled her to get a mechanical engineering degree. Her fascination with the historical Jesus inspired her to ride through the Holy Land on a bicycle. She was escorted out of the West Bank by an Israeli army jeep.

Gracie and the Atom, McKinley's musical about life, death, faith, physics, and Catholic school will be on stage in 2009 in Portland, Oregon.