Stephanie Kaza attended Sunset High School in Portland, Oregon, where she graduated in 1964. She went on to Oberlin College for a B.A. in biology and Stanford University for a M.A. in education, finishing in 1968 and 1970 respectively. Kaza earned her PhD in biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1979. In 1991, Kaza finished work at the Starr King School of Ministry, earning a Master of Divinity degree. She has studied with Thich Nhat Hanh and Joanna Macy.

Kaza has worked as a high school, community college, and university teacher. She has been a lecturer, instructor for the Sierra Wilderness Institute, education director for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, and education coordinator at the University of California, Berkeley botanical gardens. Kaza began her work at the University of Vermont (UVM) in 1991 as an assistant professor and became a full professor, her current position, in 2005.

At UVM, she teaches both undergraduate and graduate students in the field of environmental humanities, which comprises religion and ecology, environmental justice, American nature philosophers, issues of race and culture in natural resources, ecofeminism, and issues related to consumerism.

Outside the academic walls of UVM, Kaza serves as President of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies. She participates in the Religion and Ecology group of the American Academy of Religion. She writes a regular ecology column for Turning Wheel, journal of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.