In 1994, Paccione began graduate work in education at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado; she worked with "Project Promise", a teacher-preparation program of excellence, rising to become the program's associate director in 1998, co-director in 2001, and director in 2002. She earned an M.Ed. in Education and Human Resource Studies in 1995, and a Ph.D. in Education and Human Resource Studies in 1998; her doctoral dissertation, "Multicultural perspective transformation: Developing a commitment to diversity", examined the experiences of individuals who developed personal commitments to diversity-related issues. An instructor and then an assistant professor of teacher education at Colorado State, Paccione supervised student teachers and taught coursework in diversity, educational technology, curriculum development, communication, and philosophy of education. Stepping down from the faculty in 2003 to focus on her work as a state representative, Paccione remained a research associate with Colorado State's Interwest Equity Assistance Center, focusing on diversity issues in education throughout the federal Region VIII.