She is a native Greenvillian and attended Greenville County public schools, graduating from Carolina High School. She attended Draughon’s Business College, Greenville Technical College and the Wyatt Institute of Real Estate. She has a certificate in Management from the American Management Association.

Councilor Gilstrap is a real estate broker and is the recipient of the 2003 Outstanding Committee Chairman Award in appreciation for her services as Chairperson of the RPAC Committee by Greater Greenville Association of Realtors (GGAR).

For more than 25 years she worked with several Greenville law firms and during that time she was an assistant to former Governor/U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley. While working in the legal field, she served as President of the Greenville Legal Secretaries Association, President of the South Carolina Association of Legal Secretaries, Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the Office Systems Technology Department of Greenville Technical College and was an instructor for NALS in the areas of law office management, ethics and law office accounting.

Councilor Gilstrap serves as President of the Board of the Appalachian Council of Governments and is a member of the Board of the Appalachian Development Corporation. She is also a member of the Board of Greenville Area Development Corporation and Greenville County Research and Technological Development Corporation, (Matrix).

She and her husband, Bob, have one daughter and three adorable grandchildren. She is a member of Tremont Church of God.

Councilor Gilstrap is serving her second term as Chairman of the Finance committee.