Linnea received her PhD in economics from the University of Iowa in 2004. From 2004 - 2007, Linnea was a visiting assistant professor in the College of Business. She joined the College of Pharmacy in 2007, where she is currently a professor.

Originally trained as a labor economist, her current research and teaching focuses on health-related topics. She is an active participant in the Statistical Epidemiology Group at the University of Iowa and has worked on several collaborative projects designed to understand the risk factors, outcomes and costs for a broad range of diseases. Her primary research interests include hypertension treatment and cardiovascular risk factors using both mobile-health- and machine-learning approaches. She has been involved in multiple projects that measure blood pressure and physical activity remotely.