Sieglinde Mertlitz was born in 1961 in Klagenfurt. After completing her studies at the Higher Federal Teaching Institute for Economic Women's Professions in Klagenfurt, she attended the Federal Vocational Pedagogical Academy in Vienna in 1980, where she passed the teaching examination for home economics at vocational secondary and higher schools in 1982. Since 1990, Sieglinde Mertlitz has been conducting seminars on nutrition with practical exercises at the Federal Educational Institute for Kindergarten Pedagogy. From 1991 to 2007, she taught nutrition and household subjects at the practice secondary school of the Pedagogical Academy. From 1993 to 2007, she worked in the field of subject didactics for nutrition and household at the Federal Pedagogical Academy in Carinthia. Since 2007, she has been teaching at the practice secondary school and the integrated model of the New Secondary School at the Carinthia University of Education.