Kavita completed her undergraduate degree in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, from St. Joseph's College, Bangalore. She then attended the MSc Biotechnology programme at The Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU), Baroda but left midway to pursue her doctorate at Professor William Chia's laboratory at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB, now IMCB-A*STAR), Singapore, King's College London (MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology), London and Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory. Kavita went on to do her Post-doctoral research at Professor Josh Kaplan's laboratory at the Massachusetts General Hospital (Department of Molecular Biology), Boston, MA. Subsequently, in August 2011, Kavita joined IISER, Mohali.
After spending more than 7 years in Mohali, Kavita moved back home and is currently gearing up to study aspects of the C. elegans nervous system at The Centre for Neuroscience (CNS) at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.
Kavita was a Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance Intermediate Fellow and was a recipient of the DBT-Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award. She is currently a Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance Senior Fellow and is a recipient of the Janaki Ammal- National Women Bioscientist Award (young category, 2019).