After graduating from University of Texas at Austin in Plan II Honors, O'Neal attended Yale School of Architecture, where she obtained her master’s degree in architecture.  She returned to the south and joined McAlpine House. Working for an architecture firm that values the poetry and heritage of a place has allowed her to design using the same principles her parents taught her.

Finding a way to expose an increasingly urban world to the importance of the agriculture industry is important to O'Neal. She hopes these pieces encourage reflection on a part of our collective history and the people who still honor those traditions.