Sheryl Amelia Ramstad earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of North Dakota School of Law in 1975, where she was elected Order of the Coif and served as Associate Editor of the North Dakota Law Review. Judge Ramstad received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1972 from the University of Minnesota , after studying at Carleton College from 1968 to 1970.

Immediately prior to joining the Tax Court in January 2003, Judge Ramstad served four years as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

From 1986 to 1999, she was a partner at Rider, Bennett, Egan and Arundel where she worked as a civil litigator and mediator. Previously Judge Ramstad was an Assistant Hennepin County Public Defender from 1975 to 1978, an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota specializing in civil and criminal tax matters from 1978 to 1981, and a Hennepin County Court Judge from 1982 to 1986.

A past president of Minnesota Women Lawyers, the Hennepin County Bar Association and the Minnesota State Bar Association, Judge Ramstad also chaired the Board of Directors for the YMCA of Metropolitan Minneapolis. She currently serves on the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Governing Council, the National Association of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Advisory Council, the Minnesota Prayer Breakfast Committee, and the Minnesota Prison Fellowship Advisory Board and is an active member of the Minnesota Women's Economic Roundtable. Judge Ramstad has been a regular member of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy faculty since 1986.