Shelley Breeding was born in Bristol, Virginia and grew up in Lebanon, Virginia. She graduated from Council High School, where she was part of a graduating class of 20 students. Shelley was a Whittle Scholar at the University of Tennessee where she majored in Political Science and Japanese and World Business. While in college, Shelley interned at Grandsoul Nara in Utano, Japan, the first private medical facility in Japan.

During law school at the University of Tennessee, Shelley was president of the International Law Society, member of the Jessup International Law Moot Court team and a member of the Moot Court Board, among other activities. She worked as a Graduate Assistant for the Thornton Athletics Student Life Center working with student-athletes while studying law. Shelley also studied international law at Downing College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England as well as studying international law abroad in Santiago, Chile; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Cape Town, South Africa.

After law school and admission to the bar, Shelley worked in the Coordinating Office for Global Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia as part of the federal Presidential Management Fellows program. She returned to Knoxville to practice law in 2006 and opened her own firm in 2008.

Shelley Breeding is married to John Payne, a Professional Engineer with Rogers Group, Inc. in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. She enjoys spending time with her two cats and three dogs, including Bentley, a rescued English Mastiff. Bentley visits the offices of Breeding & Dothard as often as Shelley will allow.