A native of New York City, Ulmann had a diverse education: teacher's training with Lewis Hine at the Ethical Culture School, studies in psychology and law at Columbia University, and photography classes at the Clarence H. White School of Photography.

Fiber artist and weaver Consuelo Jiménez Underwood is the daughter of migrant agricultural workers, a Chicana mother and a father of Huichol Indian descent. She has degrees in religious studies and art, and today is a tenured professor at San Jose State University in California.